Advice for your NGS Super account.

NGS Super is the industry fund for non-government education, early learning and community care, founded in 1988, and it says anyone in Australia can join. On NGS Super’s own figures, Diversified (MySuper) — the default if you don’t choose — returned 11.51%* for the year to 30 June 2026 and 7.94%* a year over 10 years, after investment fees, tax and the asset-based fee. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns.

SuperRatings has given the fund a Platinum rating, and Money magazine named Indexed Growth its Best Value Balanced Index Super Product. Whether that’s a good fit still turns on the option you actually hold, the insurance attached to the account, and the fees on your balance — not the award headline.

For an NGS Accumulation account, NGS Super’s published administration fee is $65 a year plus 0.17% a year of your balance — not charged on the amount above $575,000 — plus an estimated 0.05% a year paid from fund reserves rather than from your account. Think of the $65 and the 0.17% as the running cost of the account: they come out monthly. The 0.17% is a small slice of every dollar up to $575,000, and that slice stops above that amount. Investment fees come out of returns before they hit your balance, so you don’t see a separate deduction.

For Diversified (MySuper), those investment fees sit inside the unit price at 0.70% a year and transaction costs are 0.04% a year, so the published cost of product on a $50,000 balance is $545 for that option. Indexed Growth’s published cost of product on the same $50,000 is $215. There’s no entry fee, exit fee, switching fee or buy-sell spread. Insurance premiums and personal advice fees are extra. The figures are from NGS Super’s Fees, costs and tax guide issued 1 July 2026 — check that guide or your statement for the option you actually hold.

Eligible NGS Super members receive Default Cover as a package of Life, Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD) and Income Protection. If you work for a school, kindergarten, P&C or another body whose primary function is education, your insurance category is NGS Plus — the higher default cover and a lower premium than NGS General. Members in aged, health and community care usually start in NGS General and can apply to move to NGS Plus or NGS Select if their duties are professional, involve no manual work, and are at least 80% office or classroom based (Select also applies an earnings threshold — NGS Super publishes the current figure).

Automatic cover generally starts once you’re 25 or over, your balance has reached $6,000, and an employer contribution has been received. You can ask NGS Super to start it earlier by opting in within 120 days of your welcome letter. Default Income Protection uses a 90-day waiting period and pays for up to two years. Life cover can run to age 75, TPD to 67 and Income Protection to 67. Automatic cover can start as Limited Cover, which only pays for a new illness or injury — how long it lasts depends on your contribution timing, ending after a period of active employment (in some cases 12 or 24 months plus an active-employment test). Closing the account in a full rollover can end the cover, so read the Insurance Guide on the NGS Super site before you change anything.

You can generally access NGS Super once you meet a condition of release: permanently retiring at or after preservation age, ceasing a job on or after 60, or turning 65. Preservation age is 60 if you were born after 30 June 1964; if you were born before 1 July 1964 you’ve already reached it. Permanently retired, in NGS Super’s wording, means you never expect to work more than 10 hours a week again.

Once you meet a condition, you can open an NGS Income account or take a cash lump sum on a Request for withdrawal form. NGS Super says it aims to process a completed withdrawal within 3 business days. If you’re still working at 60, a transition to retirement account is usually the available route. Super payments are usually tax-free from 60. Hardship release, compassionate grounds and the first-home super saver scheme exist under their own rules — NGS Super’s hardship form lets you apply for up to $10,000 (before tax), with a second pathway once you’ve reached preservation age and have been on eligible income support for 39 weeks. Check the condition you actually meet with NGS Super before you count on the money.

An NGS Transition to retirement (TTR) account is available from preservation age — now 60 — if you’re still working and under 65. Think of TTR as a tap on your super while you keep working: you can take a limited income, but you can’t empty the account as a lump sum the way you can after 65. It sits beside your accumulation account and pays you between 4% and 10% of the TTR balance each financial year.

Those income payments are tax-free from 60, but investment earnings in TTR are generally taxed at up to 15%, the same as accumulation. You must take at least one payment a year, and you can choose fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, six-monthly or annual payments. Typical uses NGS Super names are cutting work hours without cutting take-home pay, or salary-sacrificing more of your salary and replacing the cash with TTR income — whether either helps depends on your circumstances. At 65 an NGS TTR automatically transfers to an NGS Income account, which has tax-free earnings and unrestricted access. Read the Retirement PDS on the NGS Super site before you apply.

NGS Super’s Accumulation account USI is 73549180515701. The Income account USI is 73549180515799. The fund ABN is 73 549 180 515.

Think of the USI as the account’s BSB — your employer or another fund needs the Accumulation number to pay Super Guarantee or roll money into the everyday account. The Income account USI identifies the pension product, which you open through NGS Super’s application process rather than by a direct employer contribution. Those numbers are published on NGS Super’s fund information and FAQ pages.

NGS Super and Australian Catholic Superannuation signed a memorandum of understanding to merge in August 2020. In August 2021 both funds announced they would not proceed.

As at August 2026, NGS Super hasn’t announced a merger with another fund and remains a standalone industry fund. If you hold a closed defined benefit sub-plan, that arrangement is still inside NGS Super — it didn’t move to another fund.

If you’re happy with NGS 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 yours 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. A full rollover can cancel Default Cover, so that sits in the comparison rather than after it.

It depends on how you take it. Long service leave taken as leave is generally paid at your ordinary wage, so super is generally payable on it. If you leave it untaken and receive it as a lump sum when you finish, you may not receive super on it.

Half-pay arrangements can work differently again. Long service leave can also be the income you live on between finishing work and accessing super. Because the treatment differs by employer and by state, check your own entitlement rather than treating this as a single national rule.

Yes, the financial year you finish in can change the tax. Your final salary, unused leave and any termination payment may land in a single financial year or be split across two. Retiring in December isn’t the same as retiring in February, because the two years have separate tax-free thresholds and rates. Check which year those last pays would fall into before you lock the date.

You cover those two years from long service leave, super once you can access it, savings, investments or continued work. What you spend first isn’t a wash: Centrelink counts different assets differently, so using one source can change the Age Pension you later receive.

Think of it as one household budget that has to last from the last pay to 67, not two separate problems. Check what you actually have available — leave, super access and other savings — before you set the date.

Possibly. Unused concessional contribution amounts from earlier years can still be available, depending on your total super balance and the rules for the relevant year.

Think of concessional room as the before-tax amount you can put in each year at the 15% contributions-tax rate; if you didn’t use it all, some of it can carry forward for five years and then drops off. Eligibility is tested against your total super balance. Check the unused amounts on your ATO notice or NGS Super statement before they expire.

Yes, in a small number of closed sub-plans rather than across the fund. Most members hold an ordinary accumulation account instead. NGS Super still reports closed defined benefit arrangements including the Catholic Church Staff Superannuation Plan in South Australia and the Penleigh & Essendon Grammar School (PEGS) plan.

A defined benefit is worked out by formula — typically salary, years and a factor — rather than from an investment balance, and the choices attached to it are generally permanent. Confirm which arrangement you’re in before you plan anything around it.

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.