In a welcome respite from years of major changes, there wasn’t much in last night’s Federal Budget about superannuation. The few changes were relatively minor and non-controversial, including:
Permanent Capital Gains Tax relief for merging super funds
Relaxed contribution rules for older Australians
Increased funding for regulators
Adjustments to reflect the final Protecting Your Super Act
Establishment of a Superannuation Consumer Advocate
The changes announced in the Budget require legislation. Parliament will sit for the next few days, but an election on 11 May is likely to be called on this coming Sunday or Monday.
We have detailed the superannuation changes in the Budget below:
The Government has announced permanent Capital Gains Tax relief for merging funds. Previously, this relief has been granted on a temporary basis. There are likely to be significant fund mergers in the near future and this will ensure some members receive an increased benefit.
From 1 July 2020, 65 and 66 year-olds will be able to make voluntary contributions (both concessional and non-concessional) to their superannuation without having to meet a work test. Currently, people aged 65 and over have to work for a minimum 40 hours over a 30 day period in the relevant financial year.
People aged 65 and 66 will also be able to make up to three years of non-concessional contributions under the bring-forward rule. People up to and including age 74 will be able to receive spouse contributions, with those 65 and 66 no longer needing to meet a work test. Currently, people aged 65 to 74 can only make voluntary contributions if they work a minimum of 40 hours over a 30 day period in a financial year. People aged 65 and over cannot access bring-forward arrangements and those aged 70 and over cannot receive spouse contributions.
The Government says that aligning the work test with the eligibility age for the Age Pension (scheduled to reach 67 from 1 July 2023) and increasing the age limit for spouse contributions to 74 will give older Australians greater flexibility to save for retirement.
The Government will provide $42 million over the next few years for the ATO to recover unpaid tax and superannuation liabilities including from large corporate entities and high wealth individuals.
They will ramp up regulator spending by more than $640 million, including:
over $400 million to ASIC to support its new enforcement and supervisory strategies
over $150 million to APRA to strengthen supervision and enforcement
over $35 million for a new criminal jurisdiction of the Federal Court.
As a result of the Government agreeing to amendments to the Protecting Your Super Package the Budget was amended to take account of:
extending to 16 months the period after which an account that has not received any contribution is considered inactive;
expanding the definition of when an account is considered active for the ATO-led consolidation regime; and
requiring the ATO to consolidate to an active account, where possible, within 28 days of receipt.
The Government has also announced its intention to establish a Superannuation Consumer Advocate and called for expressions of interest.
We would love to hear what you think of the changes announced in the Federal Budget. Leave us your thoughts and comments below. If you would like to find out more about how these changes will impact you, you can contact us at enquiries@iqgroup.com.au.
Recently, IQ Group held their Annual Conference. It was attended by employees from all across the country. Each year IQ Group holds a leadership day before the Annual Conference kicks off. This day is a great opportunity for the IQ Group leadership team to come together, learn from each other and address the challenges they are facing.
This year the Leadership Day was broken down into three parts:
Reflection on Leadership in 2018 – A chance to look back on the past year and identify what worked, and what challenges were faced.
Inspirational Leading – Learning techniques to better communicate with, inspire and engage peers and team members.
Leading in 2019 – Identifying solutions to better support our clients and staff in 2019 across 4 key areas of the business.
We went around and asked several of the Leadership Day attendees what their favourite parts of the day were, and what they learned:
“I enjoyed the ‘Inspire’ activity where we had to team up with another team leader to talk about a topic and inspire them. We took turns to inspire the other person in a short amount of time (a minute or two). Then we were assigned a different team leader and told to convey the same message in four sentences. This activity helped us to be more articulate and convey the message in an inspiring way and to think quick and capture the other person’s attention.” — Santosh Richard, Senior Consultant
“I think this year’s team leadership conference was the best we have had. We have been working towards smart autonomy and something that came up was we need to build on our processes. Building on our processes allows our leadership team to make decisions while understanding the impact it as on the rest of the business.” — Belinda McKinlay, Senior Consultant
“Definitely the best conference I have attended. The part that resonated was empowering the leaders to make decisions to benefit IQ.” — Jocelyn Adolphe, Senior Consultant
“My favourite part of the conference was catching up with colleagues at different client sites and also from different states. It’s always great to catch up with people whom you have been in contact with throughout the year – the conference allows us the opportunity to reconnect with them all and in some instances thank them in person for the assistance they have provided during the year.
Another great part of the conference were the reflection sessions where we discussed the challenges and accomplishments for the past year as it allowed us the opportunity to share our experiences and further understand the challenges that others have faced in the previous 12 months. This allows us to refocus on our own accomplishments as these can be easily clouded by how busy we all are moving from one task to the next.” — Lilian Wade, Principal Consultant
“The best part of the leadership day for me was reconnecting with the leaders from interstate and working with them on group activities. We don’t have the opportunity to do this that often so it’s something I particularly look forward to.” — Steven Pulver, Consultant Business Analyst
“Overall, I think it was the best conference we’ve had thus far, both from a fun aspect and a staff engagement and contribution perspective. I found that this year’s conference was more about staff providing input and their thoughts, as opposed to staff just listening.” — George Liras, Principal Consultant
IQ Group took time out for our 3rd annual staff conference. With our staff spread across the east coast of Australia, and often out amongst many clients, this is always a great time for us to be together, to reflect, learn and share. This year did not disappoint as we took on the challenge to DISCOVER INNOVATE & CONNECT.
DISCOVER
Simon Sinek has well and truly coined the phrase “Start with why”. At IQ Group, there has never been any doubt of our purpose – our why. In fact, most of our people will quickly tell you that it is “To provide the best possible future for our people, our customers, our business and the Industry”.
But this year’s conference took us beyond 2020 and encouraged us all to design a new world that would have the best possible future for us all.
Through the magic of technology our team created an IQ Group that continued to be passionate about delivering solutions to its clients in the Super, Wealth, Banking and Insurance industries. Our people are continuously developed professionally and thought leaders in their areas of speciality and continue to add value to the industry through supporting clients and the industry in the development of policy that enables a better future for all.
INNOVATE
As consultants, most of our time is spent with our clients, so our conference is always a great opportunity to put our heads together and brain storm the everyday challenges that face both IQ Group and its customers.
Through the inspiration of mind mapping, our teams boldly tackled a vast array of topics from work/life balance and professional development to the implementation of new regulatory change and the unique skills IQ Group brings to the table. Without a doubt the complexity of our industry and the challenges we face will continue to motivate and inspire the IQ team through 2019.
CONNECT
By far the biggest part of IQ Group’s vision is in the connections we make in relationships both internally and across our customers and the industry.
This year we allowed a creative license and through the development of graffiti boards (and perhaps a little too much glitter) we knew that our mantra of Trust and Purpose will continue to drive us into the year ahead.
There was time for a bit of team building and some healthy competition as we took on the Battle of the Nations. Our Brazilian team showed right from the start that they were in it to win it and didn’t hold anything back.
But for me the best part of our conference is always when IQ staff congratulate and acknowledge each other with our Kudos Awards and Wall of thanks. From the simplest words of encouragement to the amazing efforts of our teams to successfully deliver for our customers, we recognise each and every step along the way.
For me this was a return to work after 5 months of cancer treatment. Forever grateful for the support of our CEO and my boss Brian Peters; my peers, the executive team at IQ Martha Villamil and David Haynes and to the whole IQ team, the most talented and dedicated people I have ever known. Looking forward to a fantastic 2019.
Will you be joining 2000+ delegates from 17+ countries at the world’s largest Superannuation event?
Once again, IQ Group will be the key sponsors at the 2017 ASFA Conference. Now in its 55th year, this annual conference is one of the largest Superannuation events in the World and continues to bring the Australian Superannuation industry together under one roof for a series of workshops, speaking sessions, networking events and customer case studies.
Brian Peter’s, IQ Group’s CEO, will join an impressive list of industry experts and thought-leaders speaking at the conference. As chairman of an impressive panel of speakers, Brian will participate in a thought-provoking discussion about the role voice technology will play in the future of the industry.
Some of the other key topics addressed in this years event include:
The role of technology
The impact of Globalisation
Building brand trust
Member Engagement
And more
With customer experience such a hot topic, we will also be giving away free copies of our Annual Digital Study that takes a thorough look at Digital Customer Experience in the Superannuation industry. Make sure you stop by the IQ Group booth and grab your copy, or register at www.iqgroup.com.au/study to be emailed a copy.
AIST’s Ideas Exchange Series delivers a high quality line up of specialised one day conferences targeted to decision makers and practitioners in the superannuation industry.
Limited to just 60 participants per event, AIST’s Ideas Exchange Series is a deep dive into the various business areas of a fund’s operations, with hands-on learning to deliver usable outcomes delegates can take back to their fund and action immediately.
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