Articles

Realise Your Dream

The Realise Your Dream blogs are written by Peter Kelly and Mark Teale.

Peter provides technical advice to financial advisers and accountants on superannuation, retirement planning and estate planning. He also has extensive knowledge in all aspects of self-managed superannuation funds and is a regular presenter at conferences, seminars and workshops. He is Manager; Technical Advice with Centrepoint Alliance Limited.

Mark has a great deal of experience, having worked for the Department of Social Security and Centrelink as a Financial Information Service Officer and Regional Manager for close to 25 years and for the last 15 years, he has worked for Centrepoint Alliance as Research, Paraplanning and Product Manager. He now works alongside PK as a Manager; Technical Advice part of the Centrepoint Technical team.

Naturally, his specialties lay in the areas of Aged Care, Centrelink and Veteran's Affairs and pushing people to realise that you are never too old to set yourself a challenge yourself.

08 July, 2020

Age limit for super contributions extended

From 1 July 2020, the age limit for making voluntary contributions to super was increased. When it comes to making contributions to a superannuation fund, the rules can become quite complex. For example, an employer can make contributions for an employee of any age if the contribution is a mandated...

24 June, 2020

What to consider before you apply for early access to Super

You may have already read the articles we’ve published on this topic 1 April and 29 April), which discussed the ability of eligible people to access up to $20,000 from their super as a result of the Coronavirus crisis a maximum of $10,000 in each of the 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial...

17 June, 2020

Aged Care - is your accommodation deposit refundable?

Depending on a person’s circumstances at the time of entry to a residential aged care facility, they may be asked to pay a Refundable Accommodation Deposit RAD). I have previously written about the RAD, but this was quite some time ago, so I thought it maybe timely to revisit this...

03 June, 2020

The Simple Things

On Sunday morning I went to my local café and had breakfast. I am a little old fashioned when it comes to my breakfast – scrambled eggs, a slice of sourdough and bacon, which I thoroughly enjoyed. But the highlight of the morning was my large flat white coffee with...

27 May, 2020

Account based pensions and the age pension

Last week I was asked if the rate of Centrelink or Department of Veterans’ Affairs age pension would increase if the amount being paid from an account-based pension reduced? I thought I would share my thoughts in this blog. The answer is very much a case of “it depends”. There...

20 May, 2020

Age pension - time for you to review?

It is the middle of May and the end of the financial year is fast approaching. Now, as we are always told, is a good time to review your financial position and no, I am not talking about the usual subject which comes to mind at this time of year,...