SMSF Party essential to protect retirees’ wealth
Leading SMSF strategist Grant Abbott is urging industry participants to come together in support of his proposed SMSF Party in order to protect the wealth of retirees as generational warfare becomes increasingly politicised.
In an email update on Wednesday, Mr Abbott noted that the party needed 500 responses to its survey by the end of November to be registered with the Australian Electoral Commission, but was aiming for 600 “to be on the safe side” and was currently 200 responses short of that goal.
He noted there were a number of reasons for SMSF members and professionals to get organised politically in the current environment, one of which was the popular “OK Boomer” catchphrase which he believed signalled “the start of the intergenerational war on the wealth accumulated by Baby Boomers”.
“Neither the Coalition nor Labor will protect the wealth of Boomers into the future as well as Generation X after it,” Mr Abbott said.
He added that an SMSF Party was also important to prevent ongoing changes to taxation of SMSFs and self-funded retirees as well as to balance the political power of industry funds.
“It is no secret that the industry super funds are a law unto themselves and the profits of Industry Fund Services — the company that attends to industry super funds — go to unions who then underwrite the Labor Party,” Mr Abbott said.
“With $1 trillion in their sights and huge cash flows, the SMSF Party is needed for checks and balances in the superannuation sector.”
In addition, he outlined plans to potentially use the savings of SMSF members for positive economic policies, including long-dated infrastructure bonds and investment in regional Australia.
“The SMSF Party, who represents self-funded retirees and SMSF members, has promoted the rollout by government of infrastructure bonds which can be 10-, 15- or even up to 30-year duration, with a strong interest rate that can then be used by the government to fund infrastructure rather than rely on overseas borrowings,” Mr Abbott said.
“We have other policy possibilities that look after regions, home ownership and the effective use of retirement and pre-retirement savings, using money wisely for the benefit of all Australians rather than the current government option to simply ignore what is under their nose.”
