Pension planning & advice

Thorough advice to help you how to make the most of your superannuation pension

Liston Newton Advisory
Liston Newton Advisory is rated 4.8 from 32 reviews

Get the right advice about accessing your pension

You’ve spent the majority of your life building up your superannuation. So when preservation age starts to draw near, it’s important that you understand your pension options.

We know that the word ‘pension’ has a number of connotations—not all of them positive. At Liston Newton Advisory, we’ll help you understand exactly what your pension is, what it means for you, and how you can access the best pension rate to allow you to live the retirement lifestyle you’re accustomed to.

  • Retirement pension planning
  • Superannuation advice
  • Self-managed super
  • Aged pension advice
  • Financial planning
  • Investment advice

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Learn more about your business with our comprehensive guides

At Liston Newton Advisory, we take pride in helping business owners get more out of their hard work. Our downloadable guides can give you an in-depth look at strategies and technologies that will help your business grow.

  • Discover tax strategies and business structures available to you
  • Understand and apply new business management technology
  • Get in touch with us for information tailored to your business

A lifetime of pension planning advice and support

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Holistic advice

We help you understand the whole picture, and offer financial planning, wealth management advice, and tax advice to determine your pension options.

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A wealth of experience

Over 40 years experience helping clients implement and manage their retirement pension.

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Trusted networks

Tap into our trusted network of advisers, research analysts, and tax specialists to get holistic advice in making the right pension decisions.

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A long-term relationship

Effective management of your pension requires an understanding of your long-term goals. At Liston Newton Advisory we stay by your side to help you see them through.

Learn more about your business with our comprehensive guides

At Liston Newton Advisory, we take pride in helping business owners get more out of their hard work. Our downloadable guides can give you an in-depth look at strategies and technologies that will help your business grow.

  • Discover tax strategies and business structures available to you
  • Understand and apply new business management technology
  • Get in touch with us for information tailored to your business

About our pension and retirement planning specialists

‘Pension’ is perhaps a misaligned and misunderstood word. Pension age actually signals the start of you enjoying the wealth you’ve spent your working life creating.

Our specialist team understands this, and helps you understand how best to access your superannuation pension. We ensure you meet the necessary pension tests, and then develop a plan to ensure you’re able to receive the pension rate that best suits your retirement plans.

Kieran Liston, Director | Consultant

Meet our pension planning advisory team

We have worked with Liston Newton's Accountancy and Advisory Team for over a decade. During that time, our business has grown substantially both organically and through purchases. This wouldn’t have been possible without Liston Newton Advisory to assist with our business planning, providing proactive advice and ensuring our accounts were always compliant in a complex and volatile industry.
Karsten Horne
CEO, Reho Travel
Liston Newton's Accountants analysed our financial and business situation and helped us implement strategies to improve our position. Their strategies turned our business from making a loss, to recording a 6-month net profit of 36 per cent. And we are now on track to show a 240 per cent increase in turnover over the next financial year.
Lisa Clarke
SL Constructions
Liston Newton helped us move our accounting over to Xero. Their Accountant managed the set up and training so we felt comfortable with the software. We now have all our processes streamlined which gives us improved visibility of our business performance. This has allowed us to open 2 more stores without a significant increase in administration effort.
Peter Luskan
Pandora

Our financial methodology

Getting the right advice and guidance in understanding your pension age, pension rate, and the conditions surrounding your superannuation pension is crucial to enjoying a comfortable retirement.

So at Liston Newton Advisory we take an integrated approach to our financial services. We work with you to create a superannuation pension plan that takes into account both your short and long-term goals, and ensures you’re able to live the life you’ve worked for.

Find out how we do things
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Expertise you can trust

See that your retirement plan is managed by the best of hands.

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Set yourself up for a comfortable retirement

Get the advice, guidance, and peace of mind that your superannuation pension is sorted for your future.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the pension age in Australia?

The pension age in Australia is currently 67 years old. When you reach the pension age and apply for an Age Pension, the Australian Government will perform an age pension income and asset test to determine the pension rate you receive.

Pension age vs preservation age - what’s the difference?

Where pension age is the age that you can apply for the Age Pension, preservation age is the age from which you can start to access your super. It’s called ‘preservation age’ as your superannuation is securely locked away until this time—preserved, effectively.

Once you reach preservation age, you can begin accessing your super as long as you meet a condition of super release, such as retiring, or being in transition to retirement.

However, you can still continue working once you reach preservation age, and many do. This means you and your employer can continue making super contributions up until you decide to retire.

The current government preservation age brackets are:

  • 55 for a date of birth before 1 July 1960
  • 56 for a date of birth between 1 July 1960 - 30 June 1961
  • 57 for a date of birth between 1 July 1961 - 30 June 1962
  • 58 for a date of birth between 1 July 1962 - 30 June 1963
  • 59 for a date of birth between 1 July 1963 - 30 June 1964
  • 60 for a date of birth from 1 July 1964 onwards
How do you define ‘retirement’?

While we all might have a different view of what retirement actually means, Australian superannuation legislation defines retiring as:

  • You’ve reached preservation age
  • You’ve stopped working
  • You don’t have any intention of being employed again in the future

In this circumstance, working is technically defined as ‘gainful employment’, which means receiving any monetary reward for working 10 or more hours per week.

However, just stopping working doesn’t mean you’ve retired, and just reaching preservation age doesn’t mean you have to retire.

You can continue to work until you choose to stop, and keep adding to your super until you’re ready to finish for good. As long as you’ve reached your preservation age, the choice is yours.

Can I change my mind and go back to work?

Retirement is a personal choice. You’re perfectly able to finish working, then decide to return to the working world. The only condition is that you can prove that your intention to retire was genuine at the time.

If you retire between 60 and 65 and you get a new job with a different employer, this meets the criteria of ceasing gainful employment. You can continue back at work until you’re ready to retire again.

If you’re over 65, then you’ve met another condition for releasing your super, and you can then return to work at any time. However once you hit 67, you must satisfy the government’s work test in order to continue making contributions to your super. This requires you to demonstrate working 40 hours of work in a consecutive 30-day period.

Can I work part-time?

If you’re over 60 years old, you’re able to work part-time while either contributing to or accessing your super, on the condition that you’re working with a new employer. If you work for yourself, you can continue making super contributions yourself.

If you’re under 60 and you’ve reached preservation age, you’re more than welcome to work part-time and continue contributing to your super. However, you can’t work part-time and access your super at the same time. Part-time work is defined as 10-30 hours a week, and this meets the government condition of gainful employment.

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