Retirement Planning in Canberra

Whether you’re a few years away from finishing work, actively planning your exit, or simply wondering “Do I have enough to retire?” - getting clear, personalised advice can make a significant difference to your financial outcome. At Panorama Wealth, we’re based in Canberra and provide retirement planning advice to clients across Australia, helping you move from uncertainty to a plan you can feel confident about.

Can I Afford to Retire?

This is a common question we hear from clients approaching retirement. The answer depends on a range of factors that are unique to you: your current superannuation balance, other savings and investments, how much income you need to maintain your lifestyle, and your expected retirement age.

We model your specific situation to give you clarity. Rather than relying on generic rules of thumb, we look at your actual position; your assets, income, savings rate, super risk profile, expected expenses, and goals. From there, we can project how your finances are likely to play out over a retirement that could last 30 years or more.

The result is a clear picture of where you stand today and what adjustments, if any, could improve your position. Many clients find this process relieving, the uncertainty of not knowing is often worse than the reality.

Preparing for Retirement

Much of the financial planning involved in preparing for retirement centres on superannuation, and for good reason. Superannuation offers some of the most tax-effective ways to build and hold wealth in Australia.

Investment earnings inside an accumulation super account are generally taxed at just 15%. Once you move into an account-based pension, the type of super account most retirees draw their income from, investment earnings are typically taxed at 0%. On top of this, account-based pensions that hold Australian shares paying franked dividends can receive refunds of franking credits, effectively generating a tax benefit even though no tax is being paid on the income.

These structural advantages mean that getting your superannuation strategy right before and during retirement can have a meaningful impact on how long your money lasts and how much income you can draw.

What We Help Retirees and Pre-Retirees With

When Can You Access Your Super?

The rules around accessing superannuation depend on your age and whether you’ve met a “condition of release.” We help you understand when your super becomes available and what options you have at each stage, including transition to retirement strategies if you’re not quite ready to stop working entirely.

Tax-Effective Structuring of Your Wealth

How your wealth is allocated across different structures; superannuation, personal investments, joint accounts, trusts, has a direct impact on how much tax you pay in retirement. We advise on the most tax-effective way to hold and draw down your assets, both in the lead-up to retirement and once you’ve stopped working.

Adding to Superannuation

There are several ways to boost your super balance before retirement, each with different tax implications and contribution caps. We provide advice on:

  • Concessional (before-tax) contributions, including salary sacrifice and personal deductible contributions.
  • Catch-up concessional contributions using unused cap amounts from prior years.
  • Non-concessional (after-tax) contributions and the bring-forward rule.
  • Downsizer contributions: potentially available if you’re 55 or older and selling your home.

Tax Minimisation Strategies

There are legitimate strategies that can reduce the amount of tax you pay during and after the transition to retirement. These include re-contribution strategies (withdrawing from super and re-contributing to improve the tax-free component of your balance), converting accumulation accounts into account-based pensions at the right time, and structuring withdrawals to minimise income tax.

How Much Pension Income Can You Afford to Take?

One of the biggest decisions in retirement is how much income to draw from your super each year. Take too much, and you risk running out. Take too little, and you may not enjoy the retirement you’ve worked for. We model different income scenarios to help you find a sustainable level that supports the lifestyle you want, while giving you confidence that your money will last.

What If You Don’t Need the Pension Income?

If you have significant wealth outside of superannuation, you may not need or want to draw a pension income at all. However, once you’ve started an account-based pension, minimum drawdown rules require you to withdraw a percentage each year regardless of whether you need the money. We advise on how to manage these compulsory drawdowns in the most tax-effective way, including strategies for reinvesting the income, structuring it across other holdings, or timing the commencement of your pension to align with your broader wealth strategy.