How can you maximise your payout from your superannuation fund?

It's both a blessing and a curse to use the self-managed super fund (SMSF) as your primary vessel for managing your retirement income. On one hand, you have total autonomy to make your own decisions about your own wealth, which can be liberating. On the other hand, you might also be under a lot of pressure.

Are you doing everything you can to maximise the amount you earn? With a traditional retirement fund, worrying about that is someone else's problem, but with an SMSF, that burden rests squarely on you. One small misstep could cost you a lot of money. Do you know all the best tips and tricks for taking home as much cash as possible?

Benefits are on the rise

Among those who go the SMSF route for wealth management for their retirement, results have been pretty good lately. According to Super Review, the average benefit payment for SMSF trustees rose a staggering amount – from $16,256 to $27,900 – during the March quarter of 2016.

Phil La Greca, executive manager of technical and strategic solutions at SuperConcepts, commented that savers were using a variety of tactics to pad their earnings.

"Strategies include making non-concessional contributions into an accumulation account, starting a new 100 per cent tax-free pension and making contributions to a spouse to try and equalise member balances and maximise access to the $1.6 million pension transfer balance cap for both persons," he said.

Finding strategies to maximise returns

When done optimally, managing your own superannuation services can be a great way to build wealth for your later years. But do you have the optimal strategy?

You want to maximise the amount of cash you can collect.

Money Management Magazine noted that there are a lot of tips and tricks the average person doesn't know about. For example, you can increase your age pension entitlements by starting an account-based pension, or you can roll over funds from other super funds in an effort to change the payouts you're entitled to. These are tricky moves to pull off financially, though, and it pays to have help from accounting professionals.

Getting help from the accounting pros

If there are any aspects of superannuation that are giving you pause, you shouldn't hesitate to reach out to us at Wilson Porter. Our staff of chartered accountants is more than ready to help you with every aspect of super, including administering your fund and handling compliance issues.

Do you have any needs involving super funds that aren't being met? Give us a call – we can meet them.