Retirement Planning

The RM Capital Difference

Superannuation and Retirement Planning

Together with the government age pension, superannuation forms the basis for Australia’s retirement income policy, and is a tax effective way for all Australians to save for their retirement.

As a result of being tax effective, there are a number of rules that apply to restrict how much income you can contribute and the conditions under which you can access it. An appropriate superannuation strategy is essential when planning your retirement to ensure you will be able to fund your desired retirement lifestyle.

RM Capital Wealth in-house superannuation specialists can walk you through the maze of regulatory requirements and provide advice on the setup and management of your superannuation investments or self-managed super fund. They can help you decide which type of structure best suits your needs and advise how much you should regularly contribute to achieve your retirement lifestyle objectives. They can also help you consolidate multiple super funds and switch to a different fund or structure, if appropriate.

There are a number of strategies you can employ to increase the balance of your super savings and optimise your income stream in retirement. Our superannuation specialists can help you decide if any of the following strategies are appropriate for you:

Personal after-tax contributions

Salary sacrifice

Transition to retirement pension

In-specie contributions

Spouse contributions

UK Pension Transfers to Australia

If you are a UK migrant or returning expat, residing in Australia, RM Capital Wealth are specialised in transferring your eligible UK pensions into Australia as a lump sum in a tax optimised solution (if aged 55yrs and over) or transferring your UK defined benefit/final salary scheme into a UK SIPP (if aged under 55 yrs).

We offer an integrated global solution incorporating our expertise in Australian Superannuation and QROPS, and mandatory UK advice (if required by HMRC) from our accredited and FCA licensed UK advisers. UK pension transfers to Australia can be complicated and time consuming and an incorrect process can be costly and time consuming.

It’s essential you have the right advisers helping you through this process. Transferring your funds to a non-compliant overseas fund structure could result in a penalty tax by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) of up to 55% of the value of the transfer. Transferring into an offshore fund (in Malta, Gibraltar, Isle of Man or New Zealand etc) when you do not reside in the same country at the time of transfer, could incur the HMRC OTC tax of 25% of the transfer value.

Engaging our professional transfer services can save you time and potentially thousands – even tens of thousands of dollars. We specialise in large transfer values, ensuring your transfer is completed in a compliant, tax efficient manner.

Our integrated global solution, depending on your situation may include:

UK State Retirement Pension Service

Significant changes were introduced from 6 April 2016 to the state retirement pension when a new scheme was introduced. The transition from the old state pension to the new state pension has been considerably complex, particularly as the number of years now required in order to receive a full state pension have been increased from 30 years to 35 years.

In association with our UK tax partners, RM Capital Wealth will be delighted to assist you in obtaining details of your current state pension entitlement and they can then consider whether it will be possible and/or beneficial to make voluntary contributions whilst you are working overseas. This will be particularly important if you are planning to retire in the near future or your intention is to remain overseas indefinitely.

In order to pay any backdated contributions and increase your entitlement to the UK state pension, you need to have worked in the UK for 3 years prior to your departure or meet various other criteria and our UK tax partners can consider this when they have received the statement pension forecasts from the Department for Work and Pensions.

This is a ‘two step’ process and we first need to obtain details of your current entitlement and then look at the costs and benefits involved in securing additional years’ worth of contributions.