More than half of Australian retirees are spending less than the age pension each year, raising significant questions about current retirement policy and super fund strategies, new research by Milliman has found.

Just one in four Australians believe they will be able to live comfortably in retirement despite more people feeling better prepared for retirement, according to Investment Trends.

Family trusts are increasingly being used for retirement planning purposes since the government’s changes to superannuation, but must still be regularly updated to work with changes to the law and family circumstances.

Compulsory superannuation and compound interest will enable many working Australians to reach the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia’s (ASFA) comfortable standard of living by the time they retire, according to the association.

The rate of age pension take-up had fallen by 9 per cent since the introduction of superannuation and almost one-third of retirees were now self-funded, putting paid to the myth that compulsory super as a policy was having negligible impact on retirement incomes, according to the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA).

Financial Synergy founder and chairman David Orford has launched a new venture and retirement product offering to operate alongside the regular income stream of an account-based pension.

The partner of a mid-tier accounting firm has warned retirees to find the right level of spending behaviour so as not run out of savings, but also not to live poor and die rich.

The SMSF sector needs to address the issue of longevity risk in a more meaningful manner as the projected age of Australians continues to increase, a senior executive with an industry body has said.