Author: Greg Alder - .au

It’s good news. Mostly. The government has announced that it will halve the minimum it requires retirees to draw down from their private pensions in 2010/11. This has caught many retirees and their financial planners by surprise.

It isn’t a new measure. In fact it was first announced early last year for the 2009 and 2010 financial years. It was welcomed when announced, coming as great news for all those who had seen the value of their portfolios shrink in the GFC. However there was no mention of it in the budget for 2011 and so it was presumed by many that the relief would end on June 30. Many self-funded retirees or their advisors had pretty much made decisions for the year ahead based on the expectation that the minimum draw down requirement would revert to its previous level.

It’s a pity the government didn’t think to announce this relief sooner. It could have saved a lot of unnecessary scrambling to rearrange their finances.

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