Retirement is one of the biggest financial transitions of your life. Yet for many Australians, it arrives without a clear plan. You have spent decades building your career and accumulating super, but the shift from saving to spending requires a fundamentally different strategy.
If you are in your 50s or 60s, the decisions you make in the next few years will shape the quality of your retirement for the next 25 to 30 years. This checklist covers the essential areas to review, from superannuation and the age pension through to insurance, estate planning, and the lifestyle questions that numbers alone cannot answer.
How to use this checklist: Work through each section at your own pace. Some items you can action yourself. Others, particularly around super structuring, pension eligibility, and tax, benefit from professional advice. Use this as a starting point for the conversation, not a replacement for personalised guidance.
Superannuation
☐ Know your total super balance
Log into myGov and link your ATO account to see all super accounts in your name. Note your total balance, any lost or unclaimed super, and whether you have multiple accounts.
☐ Consolidate multiple super accounts
Multiple accounts mean multiple fees and insurance premiums. Before consolidating, check whether any existing insurance cover is worth retaining, particularly if your health has changed since the policy was issued.
☐ Understand your investment allocation
Review how your super is invested. As retirement approaches, the balance between growth and defensive assets matters more. A portfolio that was right at 40 may be too aggressive or too conservative at 60.
☐ Maximise your contributions
Check your concessional contribution cap usage ($30,000 for 2025/26, rising to $32,500 from 1 July 2026). If your total super balance is under $500,000, you may have unused carry-forward capacity from prior years.
☐ Consider voluntary contributions
Personal deductible contributions can reduce your taxable income while building your super. If you are self-employed or have income outside employment, this is especially relevant.
☐ Review your super fund’s fees and performance
Compare your fund’s long-term net returns (after fees and taxes) against industry benchmarks. Even small fee differences compound significantly over a 25-year retirement.
Age Pension Planning
The age pension is not an all-or-nothing proposition. How much you receive depends on both the income test and the assets test, and the interaction between your super, investments, and homeownership.
☐ Confirm your age pension eligibility age
For anyone born on or after 1 January 1957, the eligibility age is 67. You can access your super from age 60 if you have retired, but the age pension does not start until 67.
☐ Understand the income and assets tests
As at 2026, a single homeowner can have assessable assets of up to approximately $722,000 and still receive a part pension. For homeowning couples, the upper threshold is approximately $1,085,000. Even a small part pension can unlock additional benefits including the Pensioner Concession Card.
☐ Model different scenarios
The timing of when you retire, how you structure your super drawdown, and whether your home is included or excluded from the assets test all affect your entitlements. Small structural changes can mean thousands of dollars per year.
☐ Factor in deeming rates
Financial assets in super and outside super are assessed under deeming rates (currently 1.25% on the first $64,200 for singles, then 3.25% above that). Your actual returns may differ, but Centrelink uses these rates regardless.
Insurance Review
The insurance you needed during your working years may be quite different from what you need as you approach retirement. This is an area where many Australians are either over-insured (paying premiums for cover they no longer need) or under-insured (lacking adequate health or trauma cover).
☐ Review life insurance
If your mortgage is paid off and your children are financially independent, your need for life insurance may have reduced significantly. Cover held inside super is deducted from your balance, so unnecessary policies directly erode your retirement savings.
☐ Assess income protection and TPD
Income protection and total and permanent disability cover become less relevant as you approach retirement and your super balance replaces your need for income protection. However, if you plan to work part-time into your 60s, some cover may still be appropriate.
☐ Prioritise health insurance
Private health insurance becomes increasingly valuable as you age. If you have held continuous cover, you avoid Lifetime Health Cover loading. Review your policy to ensure it covers the procedures and treatments most relevant to your age group, including joint replacements, cardiac care, and rehabilitation.
☐ Consider trauma or critical illness cover
A serious health event in your 50s or 60s can derail retirement plans. Trauma cover provides a lump sum on diagnosis of specified conditions, which can bridge the gap between your current income and the point where you access super or the pension.
Estate Planning
Estate planning is not just about wills. It encompasses powers of attorney, superannuation death benefit nominations, and ensuring that your wishes are clearly documented and legally enforceable.
☐ Update your will
If you have not reviewed your will in the past five years, or if your circumstances have changed (marriage, divorce, grandchildren, property changes), your will may not reflect your current intentions.
☐ Establish or review powers of attorney
An enduring power of attorney allows a trusted person to manage your financial and legal affairs if you lose capacity. A medical power of attorney (or advance health directive in Queensland) covers healthcare decisions. These documents must be in place before they are needed.
☐ Review super death benefit nominations
Your superannuation is not automatically covered by your will. Check whether your super fund has a current binding death benefit nomination (BDBN) in place and whether it aligns with your intentions. BDBNs typically expire every three years unless your fund offers non-lapsing nominations.
☐ Consider the tax implications of your estate
Superannuation death benefits paid to non-tax dependants (adult children in most cases) can attract tax of up to 17% on the taxable component. Structuring withdrawals and nominations can minimise the tax burden on your beneficiaries.
Debt and Housing
☐ Plan to be mortgage-free by retirement
Carrying a mortgage into retirement dramatically increases the super balance you need. If paying off the mortgage before retirement is not realistic, factor the ongoing repayments into your retirement budget.
☐ Assess whether downsizing makes sense
Downsizing can free up capital, reduce ongoing costs, and allow a downsizer contribution of up to $300,000 per person into super. It also removes the property maintenance burden. However, downsizing also means stamp duty, moving costs, and potentially leaving a community you are connected to.
☐ Clear high-interest debt
Credit cards, personal loans, and car finance should be eliminated before retirement. Carrying consumer debt while drawing down super is one of the fastest ways to erode your retirement savings.
Lifestyle and Transition Planning
The financial side of retirement gets most of the attention, but the lifestyle transition is just as significant. Research consistently shows that people who plan for what they will do in retirement, not just how they will fund it, report higher satisfaction and better mental health.
☐ Define what retirement looks like for you
Will you stop work completely, transition gradually with part-time work, or start a new project? Your answer shapes your income needs, your social connections, and how quickly you draw down your super.
☐ Budget for the retirement you actually want
Use real numbers. What will you spend on travel, hobbies, grandchildren, health, and day-to-day living? The ASFA Retirement Standard provides benchmarks, but your personal budget is more useful than any industry average.
☐ Consider the gap between super access and the age pension
You can access super from age 60 (if retired) but cannot receive the age pension until 67. That creates a potential seven-year gap where your super is your only income source. Planning for this bridge period is essential.
☐ Think about aged care early
Aged care costs are rising and the system is complex. Even if aged care is decades away, understanding how it works, what it costs, and how your assets are assessed can inform decisions you make now, particularly around homeownership and asset structuring.
☐ Build a support network
Family structures are changing. Fertility is declining, children are living further away, and retirees increasingly need to rely on formal support networks rather than family. Stay connected, invest in community, and plan for independence.
When to See a Financial Adviser
Many Australians only seek financial advice after retirement, when the biggest decisions have already been made. The most valuable time to see a financial adviser is in the five to ten years before you plan to retire.
A good adviser will help you understand exactly where you stand today, model different retirement scenarios based on your goals, optimise your super contributions and investment strategy, structure your assets to maximise age pension entitlements, review your insurance and estate planning, and give you confidence that you are on track.
The cost of advice is almost always outweighed by the value of the strategies it unlocks. For many pre-retirees, a single well-timed contribution strategy or pension structuring decision can be worth tens of thousands of dollars over the course of retirement.
Your next step
Great Advice offers a free initial Goals Meeting for Australians approaching retirement. In this meeting, we review your super, assess your age pension position, and map out the key decisions ahead of you. It is a straightforward conversation with no jargon and no obligation.
Call 1300 205 522 or visit greatadvice.com.au to book your free consultation.
References
- Australian Taxation Office (ATO), Key Superannuation Rates and Thresholds: Contributions Caps.
- Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA), ASFA Retirement Standard, December 2025 Quarter.
- Services Australia, Age Pension: How Much You Can Get, March 2026 rates.
- Services Australia, Income Test for Age Pension, 2026.
- Services Australia, Assets Test for Age Pension, 2026.
- Services Australia, Deeming: How We Assess Your Financial Assets.
- MoneySmart (ASIC), How Much Super You Need.
- MoneySmart (ASIC), Retirement Planner Calculator.
- Australian Taxation Office (ATO), Super Death Benefits and Taxation.
- Australian Taxation Office (ATO), Downsizer Super Contributions.
- Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Life Tables, Australia 2022–2024.
General Advice Warning: This article contains general information only and does not take into account your individual objectives, financial situation, or needs. Before making any financial decisions, you should consider whether the information is appropriate for your circumstances and seek personal financial advice from a licensed adviser. Great Advice Financial Advisers is a Corporate Authorised Representative of Akumin Financial Planning Pty Ltd (AFSL 232706).
