Advice for your AustralianSuper account.

Super admin is $1 a week ($52 a year) plus 0.10% a year of your balance, capped at $350 a year; Choice Income and TTR Income use the same $1 a week plus 0.10%, with that asset-based piece capped at $600 a year. On $50,000, AustralianSuper’s official cost of product is $367 in MySuper Balanced, $132 in Indexed Diversified, $357 in High Growth and $127 in Cash — Balanced investment fees and costs are 0.47% a year, including a 0.07% performance-fee component, plus 0.06% transaction costs. Those Super figures come from the Fees and Costs Guide dated 23 July 2026, and the live fees page checked on 16 August 2026. A few things sit outside them. Insurance premiums are extra, and cover is not offered in Choice Income or TTR at all. There is no member exit fee. A 15% tax benefit is credited monthly on administration and insurance deducted from a super or TTR account. Over-the-phone advice to start a TTR or a pension costs $295.

AustralianSuper is a public-offer industry (profit-to-member) fund, APRA-regulated and broadly open to join, subject to each product’s eligibility rules; it describes itself as Australia’s largest super fund, and its July 2026 update says it now manages over $430 billion for more than 3.6 million members. The default Balanced option returned an average 8.47%* a year over 10 years and 9.28%* a year since inception in August 1985, to 30 June 2026, and 9.77%* for the year to that date (option returns, before admin fees). Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns. Whether it suits you turns on the option you actually hold, the fees on your balance, and whether default Death, TPD and Income Protection still fit; Indexed Diversified is a lower-cost indexed PreMixed option AustralianSuper prices at $132 versus $367 on $50,000.

Compare like with like. AustralianSuper Balanced isn’t the same decision as Indexed Diversified, and neither maps one-for-one onto a Hostplus Balanced or Indexed Balanced option.

On the AustralianSuper side, these are the numbers to put next to the other fund’s. Super administration is $1 a week plus 0.10% of your balance, capped at $350 a year. On a $50,000 balance the cost of product is $367 in Balanced and $132 in Indexed Diversified. Default cover is Death, TPD and Income Protection. Member Direct lets you hold listed shares and ETFs. The pension account is called Choice Income, and moving to it may credit a Balance Booster from unused CGT reserve.

One thing to check before you do anything. Rolling fully out of a fund, or consolidating so an insured account closes, can end that account’s insurance.

If you’re happy with the account, there’s often no reason to move — and we’ll say so. If you’re not sure it still stacks up, we specialise in industry, government and corporate super funds, and we can benchmark it against five leading comparable funds so you know where it stands. If it doesn’t hold up, we can help you weigh a move and handle it properly — insurance, timing and tax included.

Balanced is the default MySuper option if you never chose one. It targets beating CPI by more than 4% a year over the medium to longer term and the median balanced fund, with a suggested timeframe of at least 10 years and an estimated 4 to less than 6 negative years in any 20 (current growth/defensive allocations are published on the fund's investment pages). To 30 June 2026 the super Balanced option returned 9.77%* over one year, 6.53%* a year over five years and 8.47%* a year over ten years (option returns, before admin fees), at a published $367 cost of product on $50,000. Indexed Diversified is a choice PreMixed option. It uses indexing strategies across growth assets, fixed interest and cash, and targets CPI + 3% a year. The cost of product on $50,000 is $132. To the same date and on the same basis, it returned 9.09%* over one year, 7.46%* a year over five years and 8.27%* a year over ten. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns.

Moving between the two is an investment choice inside the fund, not a change of fund. One trap: switching options just before a Choice Income move can reduce a future Balance Booster to zero.

At 65 you can take the lot, whether you are working or not.

Between 60 and 64 it depends on your work. You can access it if you have permanently retired, or if you stopped working for an employer after turning 60. If you are 60 and still in the same job, a TTR account may let you draw an income instead. And if you have ceased a separate employment arrangement since turning 60, part of your super may already be unrestricted. AustralianSuper asks you to leave at least $6,000 in the super account if you want it to stay open.

There are earlier routes as well, each with its own test. Unrestricted non-preserved amounts can come out at any time. Severe financial hardship has two categories. Category 1 applies at any age: up to $10,000 gross once every 12 months, with a minimum of $1,000 or the remaining balance if lower, if you have been on eligible Centrelink or DVA support for 26 continuous weeks and cannot meet immediate living expenses. Category 2 applies over 60: any amount, after 39 weeks of support since turning 60, while working under 10 hours a week. Compassionate grounds go to the ATO first, then a form to AustralianSuper. Terminal illness and permanent incapacity are separate grounds again. So are the First Home Super Saver Scheme on voluntary contributions, a departing-Australia payment for eligible former temporary residents, and a balance under $200 after leaving an employer.

Once money is in a pension account the rules change. Choice Income has a government minimum, no maximum annual payment, and lump sums allowed, with payments and earnings tax-free from 60. A TTR account is 4–10% of the balance a year, with lump sums generally unavailable until a full condition of release — the PDS lists limited exceptions. AustralianSuper says hardship claims take about five business days once the application is complete.

Eligible AustralianSuper plan members get basic Death, TPD and Income Protection automatically once they’re 25 or older, the balance reaches $6,000, and an employer contribution arrives after both of those gates are met. Premiums come out of the super account each month, cover is age-based, and the insurer is TAL Life Limited. Default Income Protection uses a 60-day waiting period and pays for up to two years. The default work rating is Blue Collar, which is the dearest of Blue, White and Professional. You can apply to change it, and that is worth checking if you sit at a desk.

You can also opt in to cover earlier, move to fixed cover, lengthen income protection (up to five years or to age 65, depending on occupation), or cancel it. Select and employer plans use their own booklets. Choice Income and TTR accounts carry no insurance at all.

The age-based examples published on the fund’s website are not your cover. Use AustralianSuper’s insurance calculator and the current Insurance Guide, or bring your statement to us.

A TTR Income account is for members aged 60-64 who are still working. You need a minimum $10,000 transfer and at least $6,000 left in super if you want that account — and any insurance on it — to remain open; you can’t add more to TTR after it opens, so ongoing SG and extra contributions stay in super. Each financial year you draw between the government minimum (4% under 65) and a 10% maximum of the TTR balance, lump sums aren’t allowed until a full condition of release, payments from 60 are tax-free, and TTR investment earnings are still taxed at up to 15%. At 65, or when you retire or stop working for an employer and tell AustralianSuper, TTR converts to Choice Income — earnings then tax-free, the 10% cap lifts, the transfer balance cap applies — Member Direct isn’t offered in TTR, and AustralianSuper charges $295 for over-the-phone advice to set one up.

Choice Income is AustralianSuper’s account-based pension. You can open one once you’ve turned 60 and permanently retired or stopped working for an employer, or turned 65 even if you’re still working, you’re an Australian or New Zealand citizen, a permanent resident or on an eligible retirement visa, and you have at least $10,000. Government minimums apply. There is no maximum annual payment, and lump sums of $1,000 or more are allowed. From 60, payments and investment earnings are tax-free. AustralianSuper cites Canstar’s Outstanding Value — Account Based Pension award for 2018–2025; an award is one consideration, not a recommendation.

Balance Booster is a tax-saving credit of unused CGT reserve, paid when an eligible super or TTR account moves across. It has conditions worth knowing before you count on it. You need at least a full calendar month of membership and an eligible option. The amount can be zero. It counts toward your transfer balance cap. Switching investment options just before the move can reduce it to zero. And the trustee can change or stop it without notice.

Two more things move, or don’t, when you open a Choice Income account. Insurance doesn’t travel in. Member Direct holdings can move as a whole through Seamless Transfer. Choice Income administration is $1 a week plus 0.10%, capped at $600.

The Super (accumulation) SPIN/USI is STA0100AU. The Retirement USI for Choice Income and TTR is STA0002AU. The fund ABN is 65 714 394 898, the SFN is 268 351 945, the super postal address AustralianSuper publishes for employers is GPO Box 1901, Melbourne VIC 3001, and the trustee is AustralianSuper Pty Ltd ABN 94 006 457 987, AFSL 233788. Employers always use the Super USI STA0100AU — employer contributions go to the accumulation product. STA0002AU identifies the Choice Income and TTR retirement products, which are opened through AustralianSuper’s application process. Incorrect details can delay a contribution or rollover, or cause it to be rejected.

Club Plus Super members were successor-fund transferred into AustralianSuper from 1 December 2021, and LUCRF Super (Labour Union Co-operative Retirement Fund) members transferred on 3 June 2022. Both old funds no longer exist as standalone products. If you haven’t since moved or closed the account, you’re now in AustralianSuper, so employer and rollover details are the live AustralianSuper identifiers (super USI STA0100AU, ABN 65 714 394 898), not a LUCRF or Club Plus number, and login and statements sit on australiansuper.com. From here the check is the same as for any other member, plus what the merger did: which investment option the balance was mapped into, how your insurance was mapped across under the transfer guides’ specific rules, and your death benefit nomination — both transfer guides state that binding nominations became non-binding at transfer and had to be re-established.

That depends far less on a benchmark than on what you intend to spend, for how long, and what else you have. For orientation, ASFA’s Retirement Standard for the March quarter 2026 prices a comfortable retirement at $55,923 a year for a single and $78,566 for a couple aged 65 to 84, and a modest one at $36,434 and $52,473. The lump sums ASFA pairs with the comfortable budget are roughly $630,000 for a single and $730,000 for a couple at 67, in today’s dollars — and it publishes separate, much higher figures for renters. Treat those figures as a general reference rather than a target; a plan can instead use planned spending, housing costs, other income and how long the money may need to last.

AustralianSuper offers simple advice about your account at no extra cost and broader personal advice for a fee. AustralianSuper’s comprehensive advisers are AustralianSuper employees authorised through Industry Fund Services Ltd. Guideway is a separate advice firm, not owned by a bank, super fund or insurer, and can include other super accounts, investments and lending where relevant.

Nothing. It’s a free half hour. Tell us what you’d like to discuss and we’ll explain if and how we can help, including any fees, before you decide to go ahead.