Retirement planning in Australia.
Retirement planning in Australia pulled into one place: super, Centrelink, aged care, downsizer, SMSF, and the property decisions that sit alongside them. One adviser across the whole file, not five separate conversations.
Retirement is rarely a single product decision.
It is a stack of decisions across super, tax, Centrelink, property and aged care that interact with each other. Changing one without considering the others is how most households end up worse off.
A downsizer contribution interacts with the Centrelink assets test. A transition-to-retirement pension interacts with concessional contributions. An SMSF property purchase interacts with pension phase rules. The plan has to read across all of it.
The integrated thesis is straightforward. One adviser writes a Statement of Advice that covers super, aged care and the property piece in one document. Reviewed annually. Adjusted as rules change. That is the engagement. The long-form retirement planning guide covers each lever in turn.
How each discipline contributes.
Superannuation and pension phase
Accumulation, transition-to-retirement and pension-phase strategy. Fund choice, contribution sequencing and the move from saving to drawing.
Centrelink and aged care
Age Pension assets and income tests, gifting rules, downsizer contributions, and RAD versus DAP modelling when aged care arrives.
SMSF and property
Where an SMSF helps, where it does not, and how property held inside super fits into the retirement income picture.
From balance sheet to drawdown.
Three stages across the retirement runway and into pension phase.
Where you stand today
We map the full balance sheet: super across all funds, taxable investments, property, debt, expected inheritances, and the household budget. The plan is written off that picture.
The transition
Transition-to-retirement strategy, pension-phase rollover, downsizer contribution if it applies, and the Centrelink test run on paper before any decisions are locked in.
Drawdown and review
Income drawn from the right account in the right order. Aged care contingency mapped. Reviewed each year against rule changes and the household's actual spend.
Common retirement planning questions.
It depends on the household's spend, not on a headline figure. The ASFA Comfortable Retirement Standard is a starting point, but the real answer is built from your own expenses. Some households retire comfortably on much less than the standard. Others need more. We model it on paper rather than quoting an industry average.
Five to ten years out is the sweet spot for strategy. Earlier than that is fine for super and contribution work. After 60, the planning becomes more about sequencing and Centrelink than about building the balance.
A transition-to-retirement (TTR) pension lets you draw a pension from your super while still working, usually from age 60. It can help with tax and contribution strategy in the run-up to full retirement. It is not automatic and it does not suit every household. We model it before recommending it.
The downsizer contribution lets eligible Australians aged 55 and over contribute up to $300,000 from the proceeds of a home sale into super, outside the usual caps. It is one of the most under-used contributions available, but it only suits some households. The Centrelink consequences need to be modelled before the house is sold.
Sometimes. SMSFs suit households with reasonable balances who want control over investment choice or who want to hold property inside super. They add cost and responsibility, so they are not for everyone. Note the 2026 change: a fund can still buy residential property outright with fund cash, and commercial borrowing is unaffected, but from 10 August 2026 it cannot enter a new borrowing arrangement to buy residential property. Opes holds the SMSF authorisations to advise both ways. See the SMSF borrowing guide for the rules around property inside a fund.
Refundable Accommodation Deposit (RAD) versus Daily Accommodation Payment (DAP) modelling, means-tested care fees, the family home treatment, and the family conversation that needs to happen before any of it gets formalised. It is a planning area where small decisions cost or save tens of thousands.
It depends on the assets test and the income test, and on whether the family home is owner occupied. Even a part-pension carries the Pensioner Concession Card, which has value of its own. We test your numbers against the current thresholds rather than asking you to guess.
Where to read next
- Retirement planningAccumulation, TTR and pension phase strategy.
- Superannuation adviceFund choice, consolidation, contribution strategy.
- Aged care planningRAD and DAP modelling, means testing.
- Centrelink optimisationAge Pension assets and income test work.
- SMSF advice and lendingTwo authorisations under one adviser.
- Tax-effective investingStructure, franking and gearing in retirement.
Ready to map the retirement?
An initial conversation is free and obligation-free. Bring the super statements and the household budget.