How advisers are using IRIS solutions to build stronger, more resilient retirement strategies

Financial advisers know great retirement advice isn’t just managing investments. It’s designing strategies that help clients step into retirement with confidence - and stay confident throughout it.

That means flexibility, clarity – and increasingly – using innovative retirement income streams (IRIS) to build income strategies that clients can trust.

In the Lifetime Income Series, advisers share how they’re layering income sources, strengthening client conviction through modelling, and using lifetime income to deepen trustand engagement across the retirement journey – all while maintaining full investment control.

Here’s how they’re doing it in practice – and what it means for both clients and advisers.

Layering income streams for better control

Relying solely on an account-based pension (ABP) may leave retirees exposed. Advisers in the series share how layering a lifetime income product with flexible access to capital, can give clients the confidence they need – putting advisers firmly in the driver’s seat to help steer better member outcomes.

Some are using MyNorth Lifetime’s full IRIS suite as part of that structure:

• Lifetime Super – engage early about retirement, recording a discounted purchaseamount for potential Centrelink uplift
• Lifetime Income – income for the life of client and their spouse
• Deferred Lifetime Income – additional income to start later with possible favourable treatment.

This structure separates regular income for life from flexible capital, giving advisers more tools to navigate client needs and objectives.

As Ben Hillier (Director Retirement, AMP) explains:

“It combines investment choice, flexibility and transparency, as well as income for life.”

Layered income empowers advisers in the driving seat – giving them strategic control, while expanding the value of advice given to clients.

Turning strategy into action through modelling

A strong strategy is only powerful if clients can see the value and believe in it. Advisers can use modelling to help clients move from hesitation to action.

Sue Morris (Head of Strategic Advice & Senior Adviser, Hyland Financial Planning) shares an example of a couple in their early 60s who wanted to retire and relocate. For each person, she paired an account-based pension with deferred lifetime income funded through downsizer proceeds.

At the start of retirement, this couple made the most of this strategy by drawing down the minimum from each account-based pension and drawing down a once off lump sum from each deferred lifetime income account to meet their income needs. At this point in time, it
gave them the same income they would have received if they only had an account-based pension, while optimising their possible future income including their ability to be eligible for a future age pension. It’s a solution combo that’s seen across practices and it gives advisers a tangible way to show the impact of their advice. In this example, modelling showed around $130,000 in today’s dollars as a possible uplift in future age pension benefits for this couple
over an approximate 20-year period.*

Across couples who hold MyNorth Lifetime, 74% of modelled strategies which were undertaken by their advisers showed an age pension increase for couples of more than $100,000 in today’s dollars over a 20-year period.**

Over financial year 2024-25, we have also observed an average 60% higher total income enjoyed by members who held a combo of MyNorth Lifetime and account-based pension compared to members who didn’t hold a MyNorth Lifetime account.*** 

Keeping structures simple, and confidence high

Layered retirement income structures can sound technical to clients, so advisers keep them simple by:

• Giving each bucket a job: income, lump sums, growth
• Using plain language diagrams and flow charts
• Showing IRIS + ABP versus ABP-only outcomes
• Showing range of potential outcomes to set expectations clearly.

When clients understand the moving parts, they have confidence in both the structure and the adviser shaping it. That clarity becomes a relationship advantage: clients stay engaged, informed and loyal.

Managing volatility with flexible drawdowns

Volatility isn’t going away, but thestress clients have around it can.

Advisers in the series highlight how lifetime income gives them a lever during market dips – it may be able to do this by reducing drawdowns from lifetime income to as low as $1 as it is not subject to the statutory minimum drawdown rates, so portfolios may be able to recover.

This fits naturally with bucketing strategies and allows advisers to help their clients:

• Preserve growth assets
• Maintain client lifestyle
• Keep clients calm and aligned to the plan.

It’s a proactive tool that reinforces adviser value and keeps advisers at the centre of the client relationship throughout retirement. They continue to be the go-to person for retirement advice.

Managing risk with SMILE (and avoiding regret)

Confident retirement planning covers both financial and emotional risks. And advisers can use the SMILE framework to make complex risks easy to understand.

• Sequencing: may reduce forced sales in a client’s portfolio in down markets
• Market: help balance growth with defensive buckets
• Inflation: indexed Age Pension and lifetime income
• Longevity: help provide an income for life
• Emotional: supports client behaviour and confidence

Ben Hillier noted a sixth, human risk: regret - the cost of living too cautiously due to the fear of running out. Once an income that never runs out is in place, that can change. Hillier noted:

“Our clients with lifetime income are gaining an average 60% more in retirement income than their counterparts…it’s life-changing if you think about how much bigger travel that might represent, or how much they’re helping the kids.”***

The framework gives advisers a powerful behavioural anchor in reviews and planning conversations. When their fear of running out were addressed, clients give themselves permission to enjoy what they’ve worked for. And advisers can become the partner who unlocked that life confidence.

Setting estate expectations to reinforce trust

Lifetime income products are designed for providing income during retirement, not to maximise inheritance – and advisers are transparent about that early.

Kiru Anantharaj (Retirement Specialist, AMP) explains that death benefit treatment depends on life expectancy. However, because the benefit of lifetime income often reduces pressure on ABP assets, clients may end up leaving more than expected.

Having open conversations protects trust, sets clear expectations, and strengthens adviser-client relationships across retirement years and family generations.

Why this matters for advisers

IRIS doesn’t replace traditional retirement advice. It enhances the value advisers bring, helping them reach more clients, with better outcomes and stronger confidence.

By layering income, modelling clearly, and addressing both emotional and financial risks, advisers are delivering:

• More resilient retirement plans
• Stronger client conviction and wellbeing
• Flexible levers through market cycles
• Earlier and more confident retirements
• Clear demonstration of ongoing value
• Higher retention and referrals
• Deeper lifelong client relationships

As Sue Morris put it:

“Once clients understand the structure, they stop holding back. They give themselves permission to live.”

That’s the power of modern retirement advice: helping clients live fully, while positioning advisers as the long-term partner who helped make it possible.

Listen to the full Lifetime Income Series on Ensombl to hear the strategies advisers are using to add value, drive confidence and grow.