The industry-based Motor Trades Association of Australia Superannuation Fund (MTAA Super) has added an allocated and term allocated pension to its product line-up.
MTAA explained the addition by pointing to its high number of members over the age of 53 and the demand for an income-stream product.
“A significant number of our members are over 53 years of age and exploring their retirement strategies,” said MTAA Super principal executive and fund secretary Michael Delaney. “There is strong demand for access to MTAA Super’s investment strategies in the form of a pension in retirement.”
MTAA Super has been closely monitoring the benefit payments to its retiring members for a number of years, with the outflow averaging between $20-$25 million. “We had been exploring the possibility of offering badged products from Iris,” explains MTAA Super national manager of marketing and business development John Jones. When this wasn’t possible, the decision was made to offer pensions under the MTAA brand.
Commenting on the potential impact of changes flowing from the Federal Budget, Jones said that the decision to release a pension product was made before proposed changes to the taxation of superannuation money were announced. “Whether there will be a need to make any amendments [to the products] post-September 2007 remains to be seen,” he said.
