Nominate who gets your super or pension

Dependant for tax purposes

The definition of a dependant for the purposes of deciding who can receive a death benefit is different to the definition of dependant for tax purposes.

This means that tax is payable on death benefits received by a child over 18 unless they qualify as a financial dependant or interdependent.

A dependant for tax purposes includes:

• A spouse or former spouse (including defacto, same sex or opposite sex)
• Children below age 18
• A person with whom the member had an interdependency relationship
• Any other person who was financially dependent on the member

Tax on binding death beneficiaries

Generally, death benefits paid as a lump sum are tax free if the benefit is paid to beneficiaries who are dependants for tax purposes (see above).

If the death benefit is paid to a non-dependant, the taxed element will be subject to 17% tax and the untaxed element will be taxed at 32% if we have their tax file number, otherwise it will be taxed at 47%.

For more information, please read our Binding death nomination form.

Tax on reversionary pensions

If the reversionary beneficiary is a dependant for tax purposes at the time of your death, the following tax treatment will apply:

• If you were aged 60 or over, the tax rate for the reversionary beneficiary is nil, regardless of their age
• If you were under 60, and the:
  • Reversionary beneficiary is under 60: the taxable-taxed component is taxed at the reversionary beneficiary's marginal tax rate (plus 2% Medicare Levy) and a 15% tax offset may be available on the taxable component
  • Reversionary beneficiary is over 60: the tax rate is nil

If the pension is paid to a dependent child (other than a child with a disability), the pension must be paid out as a lump sum when the child reaches 25. The lump-sum payment is tax free.

For more information, please read the 'Estate planning' section of our Retirement Income Pension Product Information Booklet.

If you have more than one GESB account, you can include all your accounts on the same Binding death nomination form if you’re nominating the same person(s) as beneficiary for all accounts.

However, if you want to distribute the benefits from different accounts to different beneficiaries, you will need to submit a separate Binding death nomination form for each account.

If you already have a binding death nomination in place when you open a new RI Allocated Pension account with us, you may need to complete a new binding death nomination form for the new account. Please read the 'Estate planning' section of our Retirement Income Pension Product Information Booklet or call us on 13 43 72 for more information.

Unlike other super funds in Australia, we don’t offer non-binding death nominations. This type of nomination allows you to choose a preferred beneficiary but isn’t legally binding. With a non-binding death nomination, the other fund will consider your preference but will make the decision on who receives your super.

A binding death nomination is legally binding and gives you greater certainty over who receives your benefits when you die.

If you haven’t named a beneficiary, or if your nomination isn’t valid at the time of your death, some funds will follow relevant laws to decide who gets your super – and that might not be what you want.

However, our policy is to pay your benefit to your estate when there is no valid binding death nomination or reversionary beneficiary in place. This means your super can still be distributed according to your wishes, as long as you have a current valid will.