Wattle Partners

24/06/2026

Headlines today are bigger than the impact.

New borrowings for residential property within SMSFs are out.

Existing arrangements and commercial property borrowing remain untouched, and only one in ten SMSFs borrows at all, representing roughly three per cent of total SMSF assets.

For most of our clients, this changes nothing.

Drew Meredith told AccountantsDaily: "For our clients in retirement it changes little, because borrowing to buy property has never belonged in a retirement plan."

Read the full article:

Some professionals have warned that the changes will destroy trust in Australia's retirement system, while others say the effect on trustees will be minimal.

19/06/2026

If you've spent years building a retirement plan, this week's budget reversal matters.

Drew Meredith says the government's backflip on testamentary trust tax changes is "a huge positive for retirees," and the original proposals had put decades of sound estate planning advice at risk.

His take on the small business threshold change? It stops the budget from "punishing those building wealth through entrepreneurship."

Read the full SMSF Adviser story:

Butler said the announcement is “qualified” and the Government is “playing around with words”. On Thursday morning, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the government would be exempting “income from all types of discretionary testamentary trusts from the minimum tax, provided they ar...

18/06/2026

Your pension dropped. Your bank balance didn't. Here's the rule nobody told you about.

Most retirees had no idea the deeming rate even existed, until it quietly trimmed their payment in March.

Centrelink assumes your money earns a set return whether it actually does or not. That assumption is the deeming rate, and on 20 March 2026 it went up for the first time in years.

Noah Langerak explains in The Golden Times exactly what happened, why your pension may have moved without warning, and what you can do about it now:

16/06/2026

Generic positioning is invisible positioning, and most advice practices are guilty of it.

Drew Meredith has a direct take in The Inside Adviser:
"It's better to absolutely own one channel and do it really well than to half-heartedly do five different ones."

A wide net catches nothing distinctive.

If you're building an advice practice and wondering why growth feels slow, the answer is usually clarity, not effort.

Read the full article:

Drew Meredith explains why finding a financial advice niche is the simplest and most effective growth strategy for advice practices today.

11/06/2026

Drew Meredith will be on the panel at the Monthly Online Masterclass tomorrow 12 June hosted by The Inside Network.

Alongside Abbey Minogue and Chris Tucker, they'll be discussing the four building blocks of a scalable planning business and how to identify and own a niche, specifically why being "for everyone" limits your growth.

They'll also dive into what a real marketing funnel looks like from brand awareness through to enquiry.

Register now: https://www.theinside.network/inpractice-online-june-2026

09/06/2026

If you're in your early 60s and still working, there's a legal, straightforward way to pay less tax, without reducing your take-home pay or touching your lifestyle.

Drew Meredith breaks it all down in this video. No jargon, just a simple explanation of how the strategy works and what it could mean for you.

If this sounds like it could apply to you, we'd love to help you understand whether this strategy makes sense for where you're at.

Contact us today and start your retirement journey with confidence. https://www.wattlepartners.com.au/contact-us/

22/05/2026

US$600 billion. One year. Four companies.

Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta will spend more on AI infrastructure in 2026 than the entire GDP of Sweden.

If you hold a global equity ETF, you already own all four, around 15% of your global shares exposure.

That's not a reason to panic. It's a reason to know what you own.

Drew Meredith breaks it down in his latest article in The Golden Times: https://www.thegoldentimes.com.au/meta-tanked-google-rallied-picking-winners-gets-harder/

20/05/2026

Two of the biggest retirement regrets we see are sitting at the opposite ends of the same problem.

The first is panic-selling. Markets fall in year one or two of retirement, headlines get scary, and people move to cash. The solution isn't courage. It's structure. Enough cash to not need to sell. Enough diversification to not be wiped out.

The second is the opposite. Clients who saved their whole life and can't switch the instinct off. Terrified to waste their savings, they miss the travel, the experiences, the time with grandchildren.

watch the full video: https://youtu.be/bnT8n1ZQSQ8?si=eW0XHQ2P9_wdpyUV

19/05/2026

Three changes in the recent Budget barely made the front page, and all three reshape how Australians retire.

The 50% CGT discount? Gone from 1 July 2027.
The 40-year exemption on pre-1985 assets? Ending.
Family trust distributions? Hit with a new 30% minimum tax.

There are 14 months to act. Drew Meredith, explained in The Golden Times on what is exposed, what is protected and the one conversation every business owner need to have now:

15/05/2026

"If you're Gen X and above, this is not a budget for you. If you're a millennial or below, call your parents, they're not okay today."

That's how this week's special episode of The Australian Retirement Podcast opens. Drew Meredith and James O'Reilly sat down the morning after the Federal Budget, barely on any sleep, to unpack what it actually means for retirees.

In the episode:
- The new 30% CGT floor, designed in Treasury's own words to stop retirees waiting until they stop earning to sell. Drew's quick math: $9,000 more tax per person, $18,000 if jointly owned.
- Pre-1985 assets dragged into the CGT net for the first time in 40 years. "I thought accountants would hate this budget. I think they're going to love it."
- The 30% minimum tax on family trust distributions. Drew's one-word verdict: "shocking."
- Why the holiday home market in places like Mornington and Bright is in real trouble.
- The $250 "Working Australian Tax Offset" and why retirees don't qualify.

Super is the one thing left untouched.
The case for it has never been stronger.
Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/live/vIszGfiORVE?si=whixBWYU03Is1a-4

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In this emergency Australian Retirement Podcast episode, Drew and James unpack last night's Federal Budget - including the abolition of negative gearing on e...