Global Pandemic. Two words that sum up 2020 and all the positive and challenging life lessons and experiences that were loaded within. We look back at a year many will want to forget.

Optimum Pensions Perspective

WFH

When the CBD emptied, and workers headed home for what we thought would be a short stint of WFH sprinkled with a liberal amount of Netflix, our team at Optimum Pensions adjusted well to the new working conditions. In fact, it was BAU as we had all been working remotely since the business began, albeit without an audience of family members now burdening the WIFI.

WINS

We were very proud to take home two awards in the 2020 Plan For Life Excellence Awards. Winner of the Longevity Product (Investment Linked) Award for our innovative retirement income product, the Real Lifetime Pension, and winner in the Tools & Calculators category for our newly launched ‘Lifespan Calculator’. Look out for this in 2021. Read More

RESEARCH

The Orford Initiative at Melbourne Business School published its latest research which took a close look at six highly rated retirement systems to understand how they provide retirement incomes for their citizens and what Australia might learn from them. Read More

Superannuation Industry Perspective

The year kicked off with Prudential Standard SPS 515 coming into force on 1 January, setting out requirements for a Trustee to regularly assess the outcomes provided to members and identify opportunities for improving these outcomes. Great! Super funds will need to start taking retirement outcomes seriously. Or so we thought…we looked more closely and the word retirement appeared only once (!!) in SPS 515 – in a footnote on the last page.

Major developments for the superannuation industry during 2020 included:

• Retirement Income Covenant – deferred from July 2020… to July 2022!
• The Superannuation Early Release Scheme that has, to date, seen members withdraw $35.6 billion from their superannuation accounts.
• The release of the Retirement Income Review Final Report (see here for our thoughts on it)
• The Budget announcement of the Your Future, Your Super package.

The trend for 2020 in Superannuation can be summed up as lots of news and commentary about superannuation but very little of it about member retirement outcomes, or any real progress made. Let’s hope 2021 brings better outcomes for all.

We hope all find the opportunity to refresh, renew, and reset before launching into 2021.

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Optimum Pensions was launched in 2017 with a single mission – to help Australians lead a comfortable retirement. The Optimum Pensions innovative retirement income solutions are specifically developed to address longevity risk and provide greater peace of mind for all retirees; no matter how long they live.

The Optimum Pensions, award-winning LifeSpan Calculator builds confidence around personal life expectancy and retirees’ possible retirement planning horizon.