Make your super go the distance
Did you know you don’t have to take your super as a lump sum when you reach retirement age? You have other options.
Opening a retirement income account means receiving regular income payments while your super stays invested – giving you more potential investment returns through your retirement.
With our retirement income account – Choice Income – you can access extra money from your super whenever you need it, if larger expenses pop up.
The benefits of Choice Income
Get regular payments
You can combine these with the Government Age Pension
Pay less tax
Retirement Incomes may help reduce the tax you pay on retirement savings
Keep investing
Your super savings will continue to be invested through your retirement
“I thought once we retired we wouldn’t be able to travel anymore. But after four years, we had more money than we started with.”
Take it easy with Smart Default
Leave the decisions to us now, but change your options later if you need to
Smart Default will turn your super into a lasting income that can last up to 20 years or more. It’s the easy way to set up your account - your payments and investment options are modelled and managed by a trusted team of investment experts.
Setting up with Smart Default means:
• you’re invested in 12% Cash and 88% Balanced
• you receive at least 6% of your balance each year*
• you’ll get paid every two weeks
The best part is that your Choice Income account is still flexible – you can change your payment and investment options at any time.
* A higher percentage will apply if you are over age 80.
Flexible options
You can choose how your account is set up
If you set up your account with Smart Default, your payments and investment options will be pre-selected. If you prefer, you can select your options yourself. Choose how often you receive income payments and how much those payments will be. You can set the payments as a fixed amount, or the minimum percentage of your account balance. Some conditions apply:
• you must be paid at least once a year, or you can choose to be paid every two weeks, once a month, once every three months or twice a year, and
• you must be paid a minimum percentage of your account balance each year.
You also have the freedom to choose your own investment options. To get to know our options and how they can help you achieve your best retirement, head to our Your investment options page.
Important things to know about Choice Income
-
You’ll need at least $50,000 in super to deposit into your new Choice Income account
You’re not able to have insurance on a Choice Income account, so if you want to keep your insurance you may want to keep a balance of $10,000 in your super account. -
Open your account by making a one-off transfer
You can’t add money to an income account once you’ve opened it, so it’s a good idea to make sure you have all your money in one place before you start. We can help you consolidate your super before opening a retirement income account. -
There's a limit to how much you can transfer
There is a lifetime cap on the amount that can be transferred from Super accounts to retirement income accounts.
The cap:
- is $1.6 million for each individual
- includes the total amount transferred from any superannuation account to any of your retirement income accounts
- is managed by the Australian Taxation Office, so it includes money across any super fund, including defined benefit schemes
Open and manage your Choice Income account online
Open your account
Save time and open your Choice Income account online. Fill out the online form at your convenience - you can even save it and come back to it later if you need to.
Manage your account
Once your Choice Income account is set up, it's easy to register for an online account, and download the AustralianSuper mobile app.
You can access your account online and via the app 24/7, giving you more time to focus on the things that matter to you.
You can do things like:
- change your payment frequency
- check your account balance, transactions and Centrelink schedule
- change your investment options
- request one-off additional payments, if you're eligible.
Choice Income Product Disclosure Statement - pdf, 2.5MB
For people retiring and needing to draw an income from their savings in a tax-effective environment