With heightened cost of living pressures, adviser technical queries have centred around how clients can boost their income or sell other assets outside of super to increase their balance.
Recent reports from BT and AMP unveiled research about the most common adviser queries to their technical teams from the past six months.
BT’s data showed that advisers were speaking with the platform’s technical teams about “back to basics budgeting”, including areas such as superannuation, boosting income, taxation and social security. Meanwhile AMP said their most frequent adviser queries centred around superannuation contributions and home ownership.
The common thread from both reports is that superannuation contributions and retirement planning are still front of mind for what advisers offer clients.
Freshwater Associates financial adviser Cameron Obliubek predominantly deals with the retiree market and confirms the firm’s adviser queries would usually be around superannuation contributions.
“From our perspective, our clients in our office and the other advisers, it seems to be the superannuation system where we’re seeking more technical support,” Obliubek tells Professional Planner.
Obliubek suggests that the cost of living has resulted in people wondering about how they can access their super in some capacity.
“That might be an avenue some advisers are exploring with their technical department to gain access to what assistances they can get from the government in terms of Centrelink support,” Obliubek says.
He has noticed more clients wanting to make bigger contributions to super through the sale of investment properties, often the result of the cost of living pressures.
“We’re certainly noticing clients for the first time in maybe a very long time starting to think about selling investment properties,” Obliubek says.
He adds that clients are considering what they can do with the proceeds, for example either contributing to super as well as making use of downsizer contributions.
This can also impact how clients structure paying for care in the current high cost of living environment.
“That involves liaising with our technical department about what are some of the potential options that could be explored,” Obliubek says.
360 Financial Strategists managing director Billy Amiridis says the firm’s advisers were primarily focused on superannuation contributions for their clients.
“Our clients are looking to get money into super as opposed to how much money they can get out,” Amiridis says.
With a younger client base averaging 40 years old, Amiridis says there are three main areas where the firm’s advisers have been in contact with technical centres. These are downsizer contributions, carry forward contributions and catch-up contributions – areas where clients can get big lump sums of money into superannuation.
Amiridis says that most of his firm’s adviser queries are focused on ensuring no errors are made in the process.
“It’s just making sure that we’re not breaching any caps or doing anything incorrect in terms of the amount of money that we can put into super,” Amiridis says.
Superannuation contributions has been a key focus for advisers with both younger and older clients.
Obliubek says aged care is another area where advisers have sought technical assistance as it is “an ongoing, changing landscape”. For clients with spouses or family members going into care, funding the cost of care might become an issue.
Tax planning is also a primary concern for advisers. The BT findings revealed that a common adviser query centred around preparing for tax changes. This included the 2025 tax cuts as well as the proposed Division 296 tax which if passed will reduce the super tax concessions for those with total superannuation exceeding $3 million.
Amiridis says that providing advice on managing taxation has been another main concern for younger clients as they look to put the additional money from the tax cuts into super.
“For example, if you earn $200,000 and you contribute $10,000 into super, your taxable income will be reduced to $190,000,” Amiridis says.
“So, you’re paying 15 per cent tax on that $10,000 rather than your highest marginal tax rate. If your highest marginal tax rate is 45 per cent, there’s a tax arbitrage opportunity of 30 per cent.”
Tax planning has been a common adviser query for those with older clients. Obliubek says that this July there would have been tax planning going on “in terms of bringing forward concessional contributions to make use of the higher tax thresholds before the new thresholds come into play”.
