Legislate to remove lump sums – lawyer

The Federal Government should consider legislating to require superannuation retirement benefits to be paid as pensions rather than lump sums, according to leading specialist superannuation barrister Noel Davis.

Writing for Money Management's sister publication Super Review, Davis said he believed such a move was necessary to ensure that superannuation benefits were actually applied towards providing retirement income.

"Under the current largely lump sum regime, lump sums get spent, in many instances, in ways that have no relationship to retirement income, including on holidays, house renovations, purchase of consumables, gifts to family members etc," he said. "The result is that retirees who have had superannuation benefits funded by employers end up receiving the aged pension and associated benefits, when they could have been living off a superannuation pension."

Davis said that at the same time, others invested lump sums in ways that resulted in investment losses — sometimes of the whole amount, with an example being a lump sum spent on acquiring a business that ends up in liquidation.

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He suggested that trustees and insurers should also review the payment of total and permanent disablement benefits as lump sums in circumstances where such amounts were spent quickly and not in a way to provide income to a person who could no longer work.