Regulations & how we comply

The tool never tells you what you should do. It is an if-then sandbox: you enter figures and see the mathematical outcome. There is no “optimise my strategy” button, and no recommendation to buy, hold or switch any financial product. A prominent “general information only — not financial advice” statement appears in the site footer and the Assumptions & limitations dialog, and every saved report carries it.

Because the projection spans decades, every future balance and income figure is shown in today's dollars by default — never inflated nominal amounts that overstate future wealth. This is the only display basis; there is no nominal mode that could mislead.

Following ASIC's superannuation-forecast method, amounts are deflated in two stages. While you are working, projections are deflated by wage inflation of 3.7% (CPI 2.5% plus a 1.2% rise in community living standards), so the projection keeps pace with wages. From retirement onward the deflator switches to CPI of 2.5%, matching how retiree spending and the Age Pension are indexed. These are the landing defaults; you can change the inflation assumption.

The calculator opens on standard default assumptions — investment return, return volatility (for the “how likely” modelling), inflation, and super fees. Each is disclosed in the Assumptions & limitations dialog and can be changed by the user. Results are estimates and not a guarantee of future outcomes.

The Age Pension (from age 67) is assessed on both the income test and the assets test, paying the lower of the two — automatically, from your inputs. Homeowner status, relationship status and asset values all drive the result.

Critically, financial assets are deemed for the income test at the official government deeming rates (1.25% / 3.25%) — the tool does not apply your investment-return assumption to the pension income test. Current thresholds, taper rates and the maximum pension ($31,223/yr single, $47,070/yr couple) are used throughout. The tool uses current Centrelink rules and cannot predict future changes to the pension age or means-testing thresholds — a limitation stated plainly in the disclosures.

Contributions, tax and preservation are modelled on current figures: Super Guarantee 12%, 15% contributions tax and 15% on accumulation earnings. Voluntary contributions are bounded by the statutory caps — concessional $32,500 and non-concessional $130,000. Super is preserved until age 60, and the legislated minimum pension drawdown rates (which rise with age) are applied in the retirement phase.

The TTR feature models the salary-sacrifice side of a transition-to-retirement strategy: you enter an amount to sacrifice, and the tool shows the mathematical tax outcome — it never recommends a strategy or an “optimal” amount. The sacrifice is capped at the statutory concessional contributions cap and is only available from your preservation age. Contributions remain in accumulation-phase super, taxed on earnings — the tool does not grant transition-phase money the tax-free treatment reserved for full retirement.

Every assumption behind a result — economic rates, super and tax settings, Age Pension figures — is shown in the Assumptions & limitations dialog, pulled live from the reference data, and the key ones are editable. Nothing material is hidden inside the model.

The disclosures state what the tool does not do: it cannot predict future changes to rates or law; it excludes aged-care costs, one-off or lump-sum spending and personal circumstances; and it flags simplifications (e.g. the Transfer Balance Cap and investment-property CGT). Users are directed to consider advice from an AFS licensee and to read the relevant Product Disclosure Statement before acting.

Statutory figures (Centrelink thresholds, deeming rates, super caps, tax rates, ASFA spending benchmarks) are not scattered through the code — they live in a single versioned reference-data set, each with its source, maintained and rolled forward as the rules change, and tagged to the financial year (FY2026-27).

You can generate a printable report of any result, which reproduces the figures alongside the assumptions and the not-advice disclosure — so a copy can be kept, exactly as ASIC's calculator conditions contemplate.