Assurances from the government that the age pension and other benefits will be retained will drive more people to draw down on their accumulated retirement savings.

Reversionary pensions can be knocked back if they threaten other aspects of an SMSF member’s financial arrangements.

The SMSF Association has predicted minimum pension drawdown rates will return to pre-COVID-19 levels, but remain static at that point despite changes in life expectancy.

SMSF practitioners are still searching for ways to extinguish pension reserves in an SMSF that are no longer needed.

Adverse tax outcomes can result from full commutations of pensions involving in-specie transfers, a technical services manager has warned.

The government’s move to allow the partial commutation of certain non-commutable pensions has been welcomed by the SMSF Association.

A potential solution for situations where a new market-linked pension gives rise to a transfer balance cap breach has been included in the government’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook.