In this Australian Retirement Podcast episode, your hosts Drew Meredith, from Wattle Partners, and James O’Reilly, from Northeast Wealth, work through five high-stakes mistakes they keep seeing in DIY retirement plans — from AI tools that forget income tax and the age pension, to notice-of-intent timing errors that quietly delete tax deductions worth tens of thousands. They also unpack a clever (and entirely legal) condition-of-release strategy involving the Census, plus how to think about gifting an adult child a house deposit without blowing up your own retirement.
Topics covered
- Why AI-built and industry-fund retirement calculators keep missing income tax and the age pension
- Treating AI like a sharp intern — useful, but you still have to check the work
- End-of-financial-year planning: why “June” is too late and what to be doing in March and April
- Notice of intent to claim — the timing trap that quietly deletes tax deductions
- Excess concessional contributions: how the ATO’s flexibility has changed the game
- Property settlements vs exchange-of-contracts — why the date you assume isn’t the tax date
- The Census condition-of-release trick: unlocking tax-free super after 60
- Cash-out and re-contribution — saving adult-child beneficiaries tens of thousands in tax
- How secure are annuities really? APRA, statutory funds, and what the government guarantee does (and doesn’t) cover
- Gifting an adult child a $150k house deposit — gifting limits, the 5-year deeming rule, and why a guarantor arrangement is often the better move
Grey Space Advisory – snag a $100 health check
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