Retirement and Estate Planning

Two men sitting on a couch talking to each other.

Retirement planning is the accumulation of wealth to provide income and financial security in retirement.
Estate planning focuses on wealth preservation and wealth transfer.

When do you need financial advice?

How can we help?

With a dedicated technical research team Morgans' advisers are kept up to date with legislation changes.

If you are planning your retirement, just reducing your working hours, or thinking about an estate plan, we can help.

A woman sitting on a couch next to an older man.

Retirement planning

Effective retirement planning involves both tax efficiency and strategic investments. Beginning retirement planning early is crucial as it allows for ample time to prepare. Ensuring that your retirement income is tailored to align with your specific needs and goals is paramount. During retirement, income typically originates from three primary sources: superannuation, which includes pension income streams and lump sum withdrawals; non-superannuation assets, encompassing returns from shares, property, cash, and fixed interest; and Centrelink benefits, such as the age pension. Our expertise can guide you in structuring your retirement income stream to best suit your financial requirements.

A couple of people that are on some kind of mat.

Estate planning

Estate planning serves the vital purpose of safeguarding your family's wealth through the strategic distribution of assets to chosen beneficiaries. Achieving this objective necessitates a thorough assessment of each beneficiary's individual circumstances, ensuring that the inheritance positively contributes to their financial well-being without adverse repercussions.

Central to effective estate planning is the establishment of a current and legally binding will. Beyond the will, it's essential to consider additional instruments such as Powers of Attorney, medical directives, testamentary trusts, and business succession plans. Particularly regarding superannuation, which falls outside the purview of a will, proactive steps such as nominating beneficiaries and establishing binding death nominations are crucial to ensure that your intentions are honoured in the distribution of superannuation death benefits.

A man and a little girl walking down a tree lined road.

Implications for SMSFs

With respect to self managed superannuation funds, trustees and members effectively have ultimate control in the distribution of death benefits within your fund.

It is important you prepare a strategy for the payment of benefits to members' chosen beneficiaries and incorporate the facilities to implement this strategy in your trust deed. It will also be necessary to make preparations for the wind-up of the fund in the event of the deaths of all trustees and members.

A man and woman sitting at a table with a laptop.

Centrelink issues

Centrelink benefits are available for eligible seniors who have retired or are about to retire. Eligibility is based on two tests – the Incomes Test and the Assets Test. Your financial position (combined if a couple) is taken into account for these two tests, and eligibility for benefit payments is determined by the outcome of these tests.

We recommend you visit the ‘Retirement years' page on the Services Australia website. This page is a very useful guide to help individuals understand income support, what additional services and supplements are available and how you can make a claim. It also discusses residential aged care for those who are looking at their options for retirement homes.

A woman sitting at a table talking to another woman.

News & Insights

Michael Knox outlines the economic outlook for growth and inflation in the U.S., the Euro area, China, India, and Australia, drawing data from the International Monetary Fund, the Congressional Budget Office, European sources, and his own analysis for Australia.

Today, I’m presenting the first page of my updated presentation, which focuses on GDP growth and inflation expectations for major economies. Before diving into that, I want to clarify a point about U.S. trade negotiations that has confused some media outlets.

In the previous Trump Administration ,there was single trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, held a cabinet position with the rank of Ambassador. This time, to expedite negotiations and give them more weight, Trump has appointed two additional cabinet-level officials to handle trade talks with different regions. For Asian economies, Scott Bessent and Ambassador Jamison Greer, who succeeded Lighthizer and previously served on the White House staff, are managing negotiations, including those with China. For Europe, Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary, and Ambassador Greer are negotiating with the European Trade Representative. When the EU representative visits Washington, D.C., they meet with Lutnick and Greer, while Chinese or Japanese representatives engage with Bessent and Greer.

In my presentation today, I’m outlining the economic outlook for growth and inflation in the U.S., the Euro area, China, India, and Australia, drawing data from the International Monetary Fund, the Congressional Budget Office, European sources, and my own analysis for Australia.

For the U.S., the best-case scenario is a soft landing, with growth slowing but remaining positive at 1.3% this year and rising to 1.7% next year. This slowdown allows the Federal Reserve to continue cutting interest rates, leading to a decline in the U.S. dollar. This in turn ,triggers a recovery in commodity prices. These prices have stabilized and are now trending upward, with an expected acceleration as the dollar weakens.

U.S. headline inflation is projected to be just below 3% next year, with higher figures this year driven by tariff effects.



Global Economic Perspective

In the Euro area, growth is accelerating slightly, from just under 1% this year to 1.2% next year, with inflation expected to hit the 2% target this year and dip to 1.9% next year.

China’s GDP growth is forecast  at 4% for both this year and next, a step down from previous 5% rates, reflecting a significant slump in domestic demand and very low inflation  Chinese Inflation is only  :   0.2% last year, 0.4% this year, and 0.9% next year.  Despite a massive fiscal push, with a budget deficit around 8% of GDP, China’s debt-to-GDP ratio is rising faster than the U.S.. Yet this is  yielding more modest  domestic growth.

India, on the other hand, continues to outperform, with 6.5% GDP growth last year, 6.2% this year, and  6.3%  next year, surpassing earlier projections.

Read more
In our International Reporting Season Review, we provide an overview of the March 2025 quarterly results season for companies in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

Positive earnings surprise

In our International Reporting Season Review, we provide an overview of the March 2025 quarterly results season for companies in the Americas, Europe and Asia. For all the volatility in markets caused by US trade policy, the results were positive. For all the 187 high profile and blue-chip companies in our International Watchlist, the median EPS beat vs consensus was 3.2%, nearly twice that recorded in the December quarter (1.8%). 37% of companies exceeded consensus EPS expectations by more than 5% and only 9% missed by more than 5%. Communication Services was the most positive sector, led by Magnificent 7 companies Alphabet and Meta Platforms. The median EPS beat in that sector was 13%. Consumer Discretionary was the biggest disappointment (though only a mild one) with EPS falling 0.6% short of analyst estimates on a median basis.

Alphabet and Meta among the best performers

Across our Watchlist, some of the best performing stocks in terms of EPS beats were Alphabet, Boeing, Uniqlo-owner Fast Retailing, Meta Platforms, Newmont and The Walt Disney Company. Notable misses came from insurance broker Aon, BP, PepsiCo, Starbucks, Tesla and UnitedHealth. The latter saw by far the worst share price performance over reporting season, its earnings weakness compounded by the resignation of its CEO and the launch of a fraud investigation by the Department of Justice. British luxury fashion label Burberry had the best performing share price as it gains traction in its turnaround plan.

Tariffs were the main talking point (of course)

The timing of President Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ on 2 April, just before the March quarter results started rolling in, guaranteed that US tariffs would be the main talking point throughout reporting season. Most companies took the line that higher tariffs presented a material risk to global growth and inflation. The rapidly shifting sands of US trade policy mean the impact of tariffs is highly uncertain. This didn’t stop many companies from trying to estimate the impact on their profits. This ranged from the very precise ($850m said RTX) to the extremely vague (‘a few hundred million dollars’ hazarded Abbott Laboratories). The rehabilitation of AI as a systemic driver of long-term value was a key theme of reporting season, with many companies reporting what Palantir Technologies described as an ‘unstoppable whirlwind of demand’ and others indicating an increase in planned AI investment. The deterioration in consumer confidence was another key talking point, though most companies could only express concern about a possible future softening in demand rather than any actual evidence of a hit to sales.

Our International Focus List continues to outperform

In this report, we also report on the performance of the Morgans International Focus List, which is now up 25.3% since inception last year, outperforming the benchmark S&P 500 by 20.4%.


Morgans clients receive exclusive insights such as access to our latest International Reporting Season article.

Contact us today to begin your journey with Morgans.

      
Contact us
      
      
Find an adviser
      
Read more
The U.S. and China, through negotiations led by the Chinese Deputy Premier and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, agreed to a 90-day tariff reduction from over 125% to 30% and 10% respectively

US and Chinese actions had led to an unintended embargo of trade between the world’s two largest economies.

In recent days there has been discussion of the temporary “cease fire” in the tariff war between the US and China.

The situation was that both countries had levied tariffs on each other more than 125%. This had led to a mutual embargo of trade between the two world is two largest economies. Then as a result of negotiation between the Deputy Premier of China and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent both China and the US agreed to a 90 day pause in “hostilities” where both sides agreed to reduce the US tariff on the China to 30 percent and the Chinese tariff on the US to 10%.

Some suggested that this meant that “China had won” others suggested that the “US had won.” To us this really suggests that both parties were playing in a different game. The was a game in which both sides had won.

To understand why this is the case we must understand a little of the theory of this type of competition. Economists usually use discuss competition in terms of markets where millions of people are involved. In such a case we find a solution by finding the intersection of supply and demand which model the exchange between vast numbers of people.

But here we are ware talking of a competition where only two parties are involved.

When exceedingly small numbers like this are involved, we find the solution to the competition by what is called “Game Theory.”

In this game there are only two players. One is called China, and the other is called the US. Game theory teaches us that are there three different types of games. The first is a zero-sum game. In this game there two sides are competing over a fixed amount of product. Again, this is called " A zero sum game “. Either one party gets a bigger share of the total sum at stake and the other side gets less. This zero-sum game is how most of the Media views the competition between the US and China.

A second form is a decreasing sum game. An example of this is a war. Some of the total amount that is fought over is destroyed in the process. Usually both sides will wind up worse than when they started.

Then there is a third form. This form is called an ‘increasing sum game.’ This is where both sides cooperate so that the total sum in the game grows because of this cooperation. We think that what happened in the US and China negotiation was an increasing sum game.

As Scott Bessent said at the Saudi Investment Forum in Riyadh soon after the agreement was signed, “both sides came with a clear agenda with shared interests and great mutual respect.”

He said, “after the weekend, we now have a mechanism to avoid escalation like we had before. We both agreed to bring the tariff levels down by 115% which I think is very productive because where we were with 145% and 125% was an unintended embargo. That is not healthy for the two largest economies in the world.”

He went on, “when President Trump began the tariff program, we had a plan, we had a process. What we did not have with the Chinese was a mechanism. The Vice Premier and I now call this the ‘Geneva mechanism’”.

Both sides cooperated to make both sides better off. Bessent added “what we do not want, and both sides agreed, is a generalised decoupling between the two largest economies in the world. What we want is the US to decouple in strategic industries, medicine, semiconductors, other strategic areas. As to other countries; we have had very productive discussions with Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand. Europe may have collective action problems with the French wanting one thing and the Italians wanting a different thing. but I am confident that with Europe, we will arrive at a satisfactory conclusion.

We have a very good framework. I think we can proceed from here.”

What we think we can see here is that the United States and China have cooperated to both become better off. This is what we call an increasing sum game.

They will continue their negotiation using that approach. This will do much to allay the concerns that so many had about the effect of these new tariffs.

Read more