Lifetime Pension: our new retirement product offers income for life

Your super is one of the most valuable investments you’ll ever have. To bring members more certainty to your future, we’ve created an industry-first retirement product that offers you income for life.

We know the importance of making your super last through retirement. That’s why we’ve built a retirement product that provides income for the rest of your life, so you can enjoy life after work with confidence.

In an Australian first, exclusive to people aged 60-80, our new Lifetime Pension provides tax-free fortnightly payments for the rest of your life.

Full details are available here.

A retirement income stream that never runs out

QSuper Chief of Member Experience Jason Murray said the Lifetime Pension aimed to provide greater confidence for members that their retirement savings would be there for their whole retirement.

"Everyone at QSuper is very aware that our members put a great deal of trust in QSuper to help them achieve the retirement that they deserve," Mr Murray said.

"To address this risk, QSuper has worked hard in the background to develop a product to provide greater confidence to members and to deliver an income stream such that they can have comfort that their retirement savings will be there for their whole retirement."

An extra source of income to help you in retirement

Our new product aims to add to members’ confidence of a stable income stream in retirement.

QSuper Chief Investment Officer Charles Woodhouse told members in QSuper’s Annual Investment update in September 2020 that the Lifetime Pension was in response to members’ needs.¹

“We’ve spent a lot of time talking to our members in retirement about what you like about it, what you find challenging, and how we can help,” Mr Woodhouse said.

“Our award-winning Income Account gives you the flexibility to receive a regular income that can be dialled up or dialled down based on your needs. However, there is always a minimum percentage that must be withdrawn each year.

“This means that you are balancing your current lifestyle needs against your unknown future lifestyle needs because none of us know how long we might need our income to last for.”

He said member feedback showed you were interested in an income product that could take some of this uncertainty away and give you the confidence to live your best life now without impacting you later on.

As a result, we are developing another source of retirement income for our members called a Lifetime Pension to use together with the existing age pension and an income account, he said.

What the Lifetime Pension offers

The aim of Lifetime Pension is for you to have access to:

• Income for the rest of your life
  Once you start a Lifetime Pension, ongoing payments are automatically made into your bank account for the rest of your life.
• Age Pension benefits
  Only part of your Lifetime Pension (60%) is counted in asset and income tests, which may potentially increase your Age Pension benefits, if eligible.²
• Spouse protection option
  If you choose this option, payments will continue to be paid to your spouse for the rest of their life if you pass away, so you know they’ll be financially supported.
• Money-back protection
  If you pass away before receiving income payments equal to your original purchase price, the difference is payable as a death benefit to your beneficiaries or estate.

How it works

Discover how Lifetime Pension may make a difference to your retirement.

Find out more

1. Subject to availability.
2. For more information on how Lifetime Pension is treated for Age Pension refer to the Department of Social Services website.

This content is provided for information purposes only and the views and opinions are based solely on the observations, views and opinions of the authors and those providing comments.