Advisers continue to be concerned about the flexibility of transition to retirement strategies for their clients, however, these fears are unfounded according to ING Investment Management technical services manager Andrew Lowe.
"One question we get a lot of is, 'is my client locked into that existing income stream?', and the answer is no," Andrew Lowe said at an ING global investment outlook presentation.
"Clients can transfer back to superannuation [or] transfer to another transition to retire income stream at any point and once they meet another condition of release, benefits become full unrestricted [and] non-preserved," he added.
Consternation is also centred on the consequences of meeting normal conditions of release when implementing these strategies, Lowe said.
"What happens when I hit 65 [and] when I retire is simply that the benefits become accessible," he said.
"There's no re-calculation of tax-deductible amounts, there's no re-calculation of social security non-assessable amounts, and there's no change to the income stream as it exists," he said.
However, advisers are best off introducing these strategies for their clients now while the opportunity exists, Lowe said.
He cited the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees as having already expressed the opinion that the strategies are not equitable.
"There have been calls for transition to retirement strategies to be curbed," he said.
"So perhaps it is too good to be around forever."
