Advice for your First Super account.

Accumulation and pension accounts both pay $1.65 a week plus 0.18% a year of the balance, with that 0.18% capped at $1,250 a year. On a $50,000 Balanced MySuper account, First Super’s published cost of product — the all-in yearly figure funds publish so they can be compared — is $465.80 a year. That figure is built from five parts: the weekly fee, the 0.18% asset fee, an extra 0.01% for education and intrafund advice that is paid by the fund rather than taken from your account, Balanced investment fees and costs of 0.49% a year, and transaction costs of 0.08% a year. From 1 September 2025 the weekly fee dropped from $1.87 to $1.65 and the $1,250 asset-fee cap started. The first two investment switches each financial year are free, then $30 each, and there’s no buy-sell spread. Insurance premiums sit on top if you hold cover, and a TTR or Retirement Income account uses the same weekly and 0.18% admin formula with a published Balanced cost of product of $460.80 on $50,000.

First Super is an industry super fund run, in its own words, only to benefit its members, and as at 1 July 2025 it reported over 79,000 members and more than $5.3 billion under management. Its MySuper default is the Balanced option, which First Super’s MySuper dashboard labels high risk — meaning negative returns are expected in about 4.5 of every 20 years. That dashboard is also where First Super publishes its current returns, and it is the source worth checking rather than a number quoted second-hand. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns. First Super lists a SuperRatings Gold Award for 2025 and a SuperRatings Award for 2026 covering its MySuper, Choice and Pension products. Whether it still fits you turns on the option you hold, the fee on your balance, and whether the default blue-collar insurance still matches the work you do.

Eligible members receive automatic Death and Total and Permanent Disablement cover — four units — once they are 25 or older, have $6,000 in the account, and have had an employer contribution, a personal contribution or a rollover in the last 16 months. First Super defaults new automatic cover to the blue collar / manual occupation category at $10.72 a week; premiums across categories run from $4.43 to $10.72 a week, and First Super says most of its members belong to that manual category unless they apply to change it. Four units are worth $200,000 at age 25 and $180,000 at age 35, and the insured amount falls as you get older unless you fix the dollar value (in which case the premium rises each birthday). Income protection isn’t part of automatic cover — you have to apply — and you can opt in before 25 or $6,000 if the account can pay the premiums. Think of the occupation category as the price tag on the same cover: mill, yard and workshop work is priced as manual, and a lower office-based rate requires applying and meeting the fund's occupation tests (broadly, at least 80% office-based work).

You can take your First Super out when you turn 60 and have fully retired, when you turn 65 whether you’re still working or not, or with limited access through a Transition to Retirement account between 60 and 64. From 60, if you have fully retired or ended a paid job, First Super says access is unlimited; a TTR while you keep working is capped at 10% of the balance a year and doesn’t allow lump sums until you retire, leave a job after 60, or turn 65. Withdrawals from 60 are tax-free. Before 60, early access is limited to cases such as severe financial hardship (generally one payment of $1,000 to $10,000 in 12 months if you’ve been on eligible income support for 26 weeks), compassionate grounds assessed by the ATO, terminal illness or permanent incapacity, the First Home Super Saver scheme, or a departing-Australia payment for eligible former temporary residents.

First Super’s Unique Superannuation Identifier is FIS0001AU, and the fund ABN is 56 286 625 181. The USI replaced the old SPIN code — think of it as the routing number your employer or another fund needs so a contribution or rollover lands in the right First Super account rather than bouncing back. First Super publishes both numbers on its official USI and ABN page and on the Employee Choice of Fund form you give a new employer. Use those exact characters; a typo can delay the money or cause a contribution to be rejected.

It was formed in July 2008 from the merger of three industry funds: the Furniture Industry Retirement Superannuation Trust, the Pulp & Paper Workers’ Superannuation Fund and the Timber Industry Super Scheme. First Super describes itself as the successor to the Pulp & Paper Workers Super Fund, which it calls the first industry fund established in Australia, and the pulp and paper sector began providing superannuation for its workers in 1975. First Super is still operating under its own name. Its official history names only that 2008 combination of the three predecessor funds.

A Transition to Retirement account for members aged 60 to 64 who are still working, and a Retirement Income account for members who have finished work or turned 65. You need at least $10,000 to open a TTR account and First Super asks you to leave at least $1,000 in your ordinary super account so employer contributions can keep arriving. A TTR must pay between 4% and 10% of the balance each financial year, and lump sums wait until you retire, leave a job after 60, or turn 65 — at 65 the TTR switches automatically to a Retirement Income account. From 60 the income payments themselves are tax-free; the timing of the switch still matters because a Retirement Income account is where investment earnings also become tax-free.

A redundancy or termination payment is taxed using different rules depending on your age and what sits inside the payment — unused leave, a genuine redundancy amount and a super contribution aren’t treated the same way — and which financial year it lands in can change the tax you pay. The same event can open or close contribution room, change when you can access First Super, and move your Centrelink position once you claim. If you’re between 60 and 64, ending a paid job can also be the trigger that lets you take a lump sum instead of staying inside the TTR 10% cap. Compare the options on paper before you sign, including what happens to insurance if contributions stop for 16 months.

Enough to live the way you intend to, which isn’t the same as the minimum the rules require. That minimum is a legal floor — 4% a year at ages 60 to 64 on both a TTR and a Retirement Income account, then a higher percentage as you get older — not a recommendation of what you should spend. A TTR also has a 10% yearly ceiling; a Retirement Income account doesn’t. Review the payment when your spending, other income or Age Pension position changes.

Yes. The Age Pension is worked out from both what you own and what you’re treated as earning. On the income side, Centrelink assumes most of your financial assets earn a set rate of return — that assumption is called deeming — rather than counting what they actually earned. It means the answer moves as your assets move, even in a year when nothing else about your life changed.

Compare like with like: First Super’s Balanced MySuper option, the $465.80 official cost of product on $50,000, and default Death and TPD priced at the blue-collar rate, against the same parts of the other fund — not the brand names. If you’re happy with First Super, there’s often no reason to move, and we’ll say so. If you’re not sure it still stacks up, Guideway specialises in industry, government and corporate super funds and can benchmark First Super against five leading comparable funds so you know exactly where it stands. If it holds up, you’ll know you’re fine. If it doesn’t, we can help you weigh a move and handle it properly — insurance, timing and tax included.

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.