In a submission to Treasury, the Actuaries Institute urged the government to determine how retirement income products will be treated under the means test.
Failure provide clarity on the interaction between pooled risk products and the age pension could inhibit the development of retirement income products, warned the group.
“Unless the government makes a determination on the treatment of MyRetirement income products under the age pension means tests, product development won’t progress and innovation will stall,” said Andrew Boal, who is head of the Actuaries Institute’s retirement strategy group.
Mr Boal, whose is also the head of Australasia at Willis Towers Watson, said it is unlikely the government will be able to solve the problem of longevity risk if the process fails at such an early stage.
“There is an opportunity to make the retirement system more efficient, to establish the framework in which we can then debate all other post-retirement issues,” Mr Boal said.
“But the industry must first know how MyRetirement products will be dealt with under the age pension means tests.”
