“Remember, when you make a pension payment, it counts towards your minimum pension payment requirements, but if you make a partial permutation and pay as a lump sum from your pension account, that doesn't count towards your minimum pension payments, but it does create a debit in your transfer balance cap,” Dunn said.

“If you're drawing more than the minimums, you can take those extra payments as a lump sum to create space in your transfer balance cap and open up the possibility in the future of being able to move more money into the retirement phase, or, for example, if your spouse passed away, and they've got a material balance, you'll be able to receive that as a death benefit income stream.”

Dunn said the latest results show that only 1 per cent of members with a pension account, who met the pension standards, were utilising this strategy.

“That kind of blows my mind because that's such a small proportion. Is it that it's perceived as advice? Are we just not communicating this strategy well enough? Is it not relevant?” she said.

Kate Anderson, general manager, operations for Class, said this strategy is often perceived as more than it actually is.

“I think accountants may be nervous about using it as they perceive it’s advice. We've got to get better at helping our clients learn things about super. If you explain it to a client, they will dive into it themselves,” she said.

“They'll be worried about cost, and I think they don't think about the benefits, because they don't want to take a long-term view necessarily. I don't imagine this is something members think about – that when a spouse dies they’ll need a TBC then.”

Anderson said she believes advisers don’t like the idea of having to give that kind of advice.

“Which is a shame because it can be done pretty easily and it’s a very easy way to add value,” she said. “It’s just that the value is not immediately obvious and you have got to wait for something else to happen.”

Dunn said the research revealed that only 2 per cent of members were using the strategy, even in the case of high-net-worth clients.