Your super doesn't automatically form part of your estate, so it's important to tell us where your super and any insurance payouts (death benefits) should go when you die.

Your beneficiary options

For all QSuper products (including Income accounts)
Binding nomination

A binding death benefit nomination lets you decide who'll get your super (including any insurance benefit you may have) when you die.

You can nominate 1 or more of your dependants, or your legal personal representative. Your nomination is valid for 3 years.

For more information, read our fact sheet and form (pdf).

Nominate who gets your super

For QSuper Income accounts only
Reversionary beneficiaries

A reversionary beneficiary is someone who'll get your Income account if you pass away. You can choose 1 dependant to continue to get regular income payments from your account. Or they can choose to take your super as a lump sum instead.

A valid reversionary beneficiary nomination takes priority over any binding nominations you have in place.

You can change or nominate a reversionary beneficiary by logging into Member Online.

Nominate a reversionary beneficiary

Not sure if you've made a nomination?

Your annual statement or Member Online account will show if you currently have a valid binding nomination or reversionary beneficiary in place. Consider regularly checking your nominations are still valid, especially if your situation changes.

Who you can leave your super to

There are rules about who you can nominate to get your super. Generally, a super beneficiary is someone who's dependent on you at the time of your death.

Your spouse
Includes same-sex and de facto partners.

Your child
Includes adopted children, step-children, and the children of your spouse.1

Your financial dependant
Someone who got regular financial support from you at the time of your death.

Someone in an interdependent relationship with you

  • You have a close personal relationship with someone
  • You live together
  • One or both of you provides financial and domestic support and personal care for the other.2

Keep in mind, the relationship between a parent and child is different to an interdependent relationship (except in special circumstances).

If you're making a binding nomination, you can also choose to nominate your legal personal representative (the executor of your Will or estate) to receive your super and distribute it according to your Will.

Once you've let us know, make sure you tell your chosen beneficiaries, too. This helps them know where to claim your death benefit.

man with two children

What else to consider

If you don't make a valid nomination before you die, or your nomination is invalid (e.g. it's out-of-date), in most cases your benefit will be paid to your dependant/s or legal personal representative.

A financial adviser can help you make a nomination.

Preparing a Will (estate) is one of most important things you can do for those you leave behind. It outlines how you want your estate (also known as your assets or net worth) to be distributed when you pass away.

Remember it's likely you'll need to update your Will throughout your life as your circumstances change. There are ways you can leave your super to someone who's not a dependant, but it's worth getting legal and financial advice before making any decisions.

If you've chosen the spouse protection option for your Lifetime Pension, your spouse will continue to get regular tax-free income payments for life after your death.

If you die before getting income payments equal to the original purchase price, then our money-back protection means a death benefit may be payable to your estate or beneficiaries (subject to the government’s Capital Access Schedule regulations).

The spouse option on your Lifetime Pension takes priority over your binding death benefit nomination and you can't change this choice after your purchase. That's why it's important to consider your choices carefully.

Find out more

If you have a State, Police or Parliamentary account, we're required to automatically pay certain benefits to your spouse or eligible children. These requirements are part of our governing rules, and are taken into account over an otherwise valid binding death benefit nomination.

There are a couple of things to consider if you're a reversionary beneficiary getting a death benefit from a loved one.

Tax

How much tax you pay (if any) will depend on:

  1. If you're a dependent for tax purposes
  2. How old you are currently
  3. How old the deceased was when they passed away
  4. The taxable and tax-free components that make up the benefit payment.

Transfer balance cap

There's a limit on the total amount of super you can transfer into tax-free retirement accounts, including our Retirement Income account, Lifetime Pension, Defined Benefit pensions and any income stream you receive as an eligible death benefit beneficiary. If you go over the cap, you'll be required to remove the excess and extra tax will apply.

This limit is known as the transfer balance cap and is managed by the ATO. It includes all your tax-free income streams across all your super funds. It's currently set at $1.9 million, but if you already have tax-free income streams, your personal limit could be between $1.6 million and $1.9 million. You can check your personal transfer cap on your ATO online account using myGov.

If someone nominates you as their reversionary beneficiary and you get a death benefit income stream, we'll report this to the ATO. To give you time you organise your accounts, it will count toward your transfer balance cap 12 months after the date the income stream transferred to you.

Centrelink

In addition, if you're currently getting Age Pension payments or Centrelink entitlements, taking over super from the deceased as an income stream or lump sum could decrease how much you can get.

Death benefits can be complicated so it could be worth getting some financial advice about how to manage your inheritance.

Update my beneficiaries

Let us know who you'd like to get your super if the worst should happen.

Make a nomination

 

1. Within the meaning of the Family Law Act 1975. Can include adopted children, stepchildren and the children of your spouse. If you're nominating a child as a reversionary beneficiary, they must be less than 18 years old, between age 18-25 and financially dependent, or suffering from a permanent (or likely to be permanent) physical, intellectual or psychiatric disability.
2. Please refer to the QSuper Death Benefit Claim Guide (pdf) for more information about interdependency relationships.