Your Lifetime Pension payments will change on 1 July each year. This adjustment reflects investment performance and other factors, such as fees and costs. Here's how it works.

Lifetime Pension financial results

We adjust your payments based on the financial results of the Lifetime Pension pool in the year leading up to 1 July.

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What's the Lifetime Pension pool?

When you buy your Lifetime Pension, your money is combined with other Lifetime Pensions. This forms the Lifetime Pension pool.

We invest the pool in the QSuper Balanced option for Retirement Income accounts. And the pool pays you an income for life.

Yearly results
Year Investment adjustment Mortality adjustment Net pool result
2022-23 -1.34% -0.33% -1.67%
2021-22 -6.45% -0.44% -6.89%
2020-21 7.93% -0.40% 7.53%

The pool's net financial results are based on:

  • Investment returns for the QSuper Balanced option for Retirement Income accounts
  • All fees and costs
  • Timing of payments
  • Timing of new Lifetime Pensions
  • How many members remain in the pool
  • If the number of members remaining is higher or lower than our estimate (mortality experience).
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How performance affects your payments

The benchmark for the pool’s financial result is set at 5%. This means if results are:

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Above 5%
Payments will go up in the next year

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Below 5%
Payments will go down in the next year

Your fortnightly payments

You can check your new payment amount each year in Member Online or on your annual statement. So you can plan your budget for the year ahead.

We expect payments to rise over time. But they may go up or down.

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Download our Product Disclosure Statement (pdf).

Your first full year of payments

How much you get in your first year will be different to what you're paid in the following years. This is for 2 reasons.

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1. Cooling-off period

When you open your Lifetime Pension, you have a 14-day cooling-off period. So you don't get a payment in the first 2 weeks.

We then spread this first payment out over the remaining pay dates up until 1 July. That makes them slightly higher.

In the next year, payments may be slightly lower, as they're paid over more fortnights.

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2. Pro-rata rate

We adjust your Lifetime Pension payments, effective 1 July each year. The adjustment for the next financial year will apply to your previous year’s annual payment amount.

Your first annual adjustment will be pro-rated based on the pool financial results and your start date.

After this, the full adjustment will apply.

For more details, download our Lifetime Pension factsheet (pdf).

Lifetime Pension performance FAQs

The Lifetime Pension pool's actual investment return might not be the same as our Balanced option. This is because the timing of when people buy a Lifetime Pension and when payments are made from the pool impacts the financial results. So the amount of money invested in the pool when the market moves may impact the full year returns.

If the number of members remaining in the pool is higher or lower than our estimate, it affects the Lifetime Pension pool in the following ways:

  • The pool is debited for insurance costs for the money-back protection
  • The pool retains credits when members die, and their income payments stop.

We make assumptions about the level of these credits and debits. The net variance to these assumptions, which may be positive or negative, will impact the overall adjustment amount.

These variations apply to the Lifetime Pension pool of money, not to individual members with a Lifetime Pension.

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Enjoy security in retirement

Get a tax-free income for life with potential Age Pension benefits. Open your Lifetime Pension today.

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