Should TTR count as retirement income?
Transition to retirement arrangements (TTR) should be regarded as "retirement income", according to industry funds body, the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST).
The AIST has used its submission to Treasury on the objective of superannuation to argue that transition to retirement arrangements need to be regarded as a step towards retirement and therefore be accounted in the same context as retirement income.
"Transition to Retirement involves a move to retirement income as a step towards full retirement, and so should be considered within the definition of retirement income," the submission said.
However, in doing so, the submission also urged that where adequacy was concerned, the discussion needed to focus on "retirement income" rather than "replacement income" as "an objective measure of what one needs in retirement, rather than what one had prior to retirement".
"This aids fairness and also underpins that superannuation is not for wealth transfers," the submission said.
The AIST has also run counter to the recommendations of the Financial Systems Inquiry (FSI) report, by arguing the Government should establish an independent, publicly-funded body to assess the superannuation system's performance and report on superannuation policy changes.
It said it was pursuing the creation of such a body because period assessments by governments ran the risk of being captured by short term considerations and were open to tinkering.
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