Few people understand retirement income as well as Noel Whitaker. Today we are examining the pros and cons of Lifetime Income Streams (LIS) and Noel has helped us out with some Q&A on these relatively new products.
But first, some background.
There has been a rapid increase in the number of super funds and financial institutions who offer Lifetime Income Streams. Unsurprisingly, there is also an increase in the uptake of this form of retirement income. Treasury estimates suggest that just 3.5% of super is held in this form of investment. This may not sound high, but individual companies are reporting much higher interest than a few years ago. One of the reasons is that there are more people retiring and converting their super savings into different income streams, so there are a higher number of potential customers. But there has also been a lot of refinement in these offerings – they are much more flexible than those previously offered, so they have gained in appeal as part of a retirement income mix.
