Katie, who is a dentist, has a salary income of

Katie, who is a dentist, has a salary income of $120,000 per year (before tax) and has superannuation guarantee of 9.5% from her current employer. Her current employer’s default fund is X Super which has a balance of $35,390. Her previous employer’s default fund is Y Super and has a balance of $25,680 in that. She also has an account with Z Super from work she did while at Uni and it has $5,510.

Her superannuation statements show Z Super and X Super are invested in the default ‘balanced’ investment option and are both accumulation funds, whereas Y Super is invested in the default ‘lifecycle’ option.

a) Should she combine her superannuation funds? Why/Why not?

b) What investment option should she use for her superannuation fund(s)? Assuming she does not have access to a defined benefit fund, accordingly, any superannuation fund recommended will be an accumulation fund and therefore, you need to recommend an investment option for her (e.g. conservative, balanced, growth, high growth, lifecycle etc) and explain why you have recommended this.

c) Should she make additional contributions to superannuation? Why/ Why not?

• If yes – explain why she should be making additional contributions, and how much she should be contributing per month. Should the contributions be before tax (i.e. salary sacrifice and/or personal tax-deductible contributions) or after tax? Why?
• If no – i.e. you are not recommending she make any additional contributions to super, you should state this and your reasons why in the ‘alternatives considered’ section below to show you have thought of this and did not recommend it because of?