Advice for your MilitarySuper benefit.

Annual pension equals the amount of employer benefit you convert, divided by the pension conversion factor for your age in years and days on the claim day. Whole-year factors CSC publishes are 12.0 at 55, 11.0 at 60 and 10.0 at 65, falling 0.2 for each year in between. Member and ancillary benefits are never converted to a pension — they stay lump sum only.

CSC’s own worked example uses a discharge at 59 years and 118 days, giving a factor of 11.135. Invalidity Class A uses the factor for your compulsory retiring age rather than your age at discharge, usually 11 if that age is 60. For a personal figure, use CSC’s i-Estimator in Navigator rather than a forum shortcut.

There are two clocks. An indexed lifetime pension from the employer benefit can start from age 55 once you have ceased eligible ADF service, converting between half and all of that employer benefit.

A cash lump sum of preserved employer, member or ancillary money generally needs preservation age — 60 for anyone born after 30 June 1964 — plus permanent retirement or a change of employment status, or age 65. Under 60, cash is usually only unrestricted non-preserved amounts, typically the member benefit built before 1 July 1999. Still serving at 65, member and employer benefits wait until service ceases; the ancillary benefit can be claimed while you’re still serving.

Yes, if you’ve left eligible ADF service. CSC lets a contributing or preserved member convert 50–100% of the employer benefit to a CPI-indexed lifetime pension from 55, and you don’t have to have left the civilian workforce. The pension is non-commutable, so you can’t cash it later. Anyone whose compulsory retiring age for rank is under 55 can’t use this option.

Waiting changes the factor as well as the start date: 12.0 at 55 versus 11.0 at 60. A smaller divisor means a larger annual pension, but you forgo the years not paid. Any employer benefit you don’t convert can’t stay in MilitarySuper.

A preserved member has left eligible ADF service and left some or all of the benefit in MilitarySuper. CSC will hold it until a condition of release. The unfunded employer-financed component is adjusted each year with CPI. Member, productivity and ancillary balances stay invested and can go up or down.

Member and ancillary amounts can be rolled to another fund at any time. The employer benefit stays in MilitarySuper until you claim it as a pension from 55, a lump sum from preservation age with the usual work-status rules, or a mix — and once you're 55 or older, the whole employer benefit can also be rolled over to another fund even where it can't yet be taken as cash.

Your join date usually identifies the historical default scheme, subject to choice, stapling and re-entry rules. DFRDB ran from 1 October 1972 to 30 September 1991. MilitarySuper ran from 1 October 1991 until it closed on 30 June 2016. ADF Super has been the default for new ADF members since 1 July 2016, though post-2016 members can choose another fund.

MSBS is a hybrid: member and ancillary are accumulation, the employer benefit is a defined-benefit formula. ADF Super is accumulation only — Defence currently contributes 16.4% of super salary, and death and invalidity cover while serving comes from ADF Cover, a separate statutory arrangement that provides defined death and invalidity benefits, including invalidity pensions. A contributing MSBS member can elect to leave MSBS so Defence pays into ADF Super or another fund. CSC says that election is permanent: you can’t rejoin MilitarySuper, and the MSBS employer benefit stays preserved in MSBS until claimed.

If you’re medically separated, CSC places you in a class based on how much your injury reduces your capacity for civilian employment. Class A is 60% or more incapacity, Class B is 30% to 59%, and Class C is under 30%.

Class A and Class B pay a CPI-indexed invalidity pension and the employer benefit can’t be cashed as a lump sum. Class C pays no pension — you receive a lump sum of your member benefit as at 30 June 1999, and the rest is preserved. Class A is calculated on actual service plus prospective service to your compulsory retiring age or age 55, whichever is greater, then divided by the conversion factor for that age. Class B is the greater of half the notional Class A rate, or a pension on actual service using the factor for your age at retirement. Classifications A and B can be reviewed; a move to C stops the pension immediately. Retrospective invalidity is a separate CSC process for some former members who left other than on invalidity — broadly, you need a still-preserved employer benefit, can't have already been paid the whole employer benefit, and can't reapply for a service period CSC has already decided.

From preservation age and the usual work-status rules, the employer benefit can be taken as a lump sum, a lifetime pension, or at least 50% pension with the rest as lump sum. Member and ancillary benefits are lump sum only — cash or rollover.

Under preservation age, most of a lump sum must be rolled to another fund; only unrestricted non-preserved amounts, typically the pre-1999 member benefit, can be cash. Invalidity Class A and B employer pensions can’t be cashed. The taxable untaxed slice of a MilitarySuper lump sum is still taxed at 15% plus Medicare from 60, at a higher rate under preservation age, and at the top rate above the untaxed-plan cap of $1,935,000 in 2026–27 on CSC’s tax page.

DFRDB is a defined-benefit scheme CSC still administers for members who joined the ADF between 1 October 1972 and 30 September 1991. After 20 years of effective service you become entitled to lifetime retirement pay, worked out as super salary times a service factor — CSC publishes 35.00% at 20 years, 51.25% at 30 years, 67.75% at 37 years and 76.50% from 40 years.

Commutation is a prepayment of future retirement pay, capped at five times the annual amount, and the election is normally due within one year of becoming entitled (CSC can allow longer in special circumstances). The ongoing pension then falls by the lump sum divided by CSC’s life-expectancy factor, and that reduction is permanent. Class A and Class B invalidity retirement pay can’t be commuted. Productivity is a separate lump sum or rollover and can’t be turned into pension.

A MilitarySuper pension is PAYG-taxed. From age 60 the taxable taxed component is generally 0%, but the taxable untaxed component — the unfunded employer benefit — stays assessable at marginal rates plus Medicare, less a 10% tax offset. CSC applies that 10% offset to the fortnightly pension automatically unless you ask in writing to claim it in the return instead.

The offset is capped by the defined benefit income cap: $131,250 a year in 2026–27, so the maximum 10% offset is $13,125. Amounts of untaxed pension above the cap get no 10% offset, and 50% of taxed-source income above the cap can become assessable. Invalidity pensions work differently again. Following the Douglas court decision, MSBS invalidity pensions that started on or after 20 September 2007 are taxed as superannuation lump sums rather than income streams. What that means for you depends on your age, your components, and whether the benefit qualifies as a Disability Super Benefit. That qualification needs certification from two medical practitioners, and it changes the treatment: for an income stream before preservation age, a 15% offset can apply to the taxed component. Eligible post-2007 invalidity recipients may also receive the veterans’ superannuation (invalidity pension) tax offset — the ATO works it out after you lodge, no application needed, as far back as 2007–08, though for many the offset is nil because it only prevents a worse Douglas outcome. Invalidity tax is genuinely complex; use CSC’s Douglas guidance and personal advice rather than a rule of thumb.

No. CSC states that defined benefit members can’t nominate a beneficiary, because scheme rules determine who receives the benefit. Payment goes to an eligible spouse and/or eligible children; if there are none, to the estate. Eligible is scheme-defined, not whoever is named in the Will.

The amount and shape depend on whether you die in service as a contributing member, as a preserved member, or as a pensioner. The spouse-only reversionary rate is 67% of the pensioner’s pension; it rises to 78%, 89% or 100% where there are one, two, or three or more eligible children. ADF Super can take nominations; MSBS and DFRDB generally can’t.

A preserved benefit has to be claimed by 65, and you have three months from your 65th birthday to lodge your application. After that CSC can only pay it as a lump sum — the pension option is gone.

The first conversation is free and takes about half an 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.