Accountants told to review TIRS with clients

Heffron SMSF Solutions head of customer Meg Heffron said a transition to retirement pension converts into a normal pension as soon as the member meets a condition of release like retirement.

“I bet there are still plenty of pensions around the country that are classified as transition to retirement because the client never thought to tell their accountant they had fully retired,” she said.

“For example, a client who is over 60 may have had a casual job working for the electoral commission and once the election was over they met a condition of release. So the thing they’re calling a transition to retirement actually isn’t anymore.”

Ms Heffron said tidying this up now will be useful for clients regardless of whether the proposed legislation for superannuation is passed.

“Even if the changes aren’t passed, there is no downside with tidying things up and clarifying which ones are transition to retirement and which ones aren’t so I would be doing that now,” she said.