The benefits of a Brighter Super Pension account in retirement

11 July 2023

If you’re getting close to retirement, you may be giving some thought to the best way to access the superannuation you’ve spent your working life accumulating.

A Brighter Super Pension account provides a tax-effective, flexible way to access a regular income in retirement.

Why a pension account?

When it comes to funding your retirement, you have a number of options available to you after you’ve reached your preservation age. These include keeping your money in an Accumulation account and withdrawing cash as you need it or investing your balance outside of super.

However, a superannuation Pension account can be a tax efficient way of managing your retirement income. There is no tax on investment earnings in a Pension account, and for people aged 60 and over all withdrawals are tax-free.

A Pension account also gives you the ability to schedule regular payments, and the flexibility to withdraw additional lump sum amounts whenever you need them.

Minimum withdrawals

Under Australian Government legislation, you are required to withdraw a minimum amount from your Pension account every year based on your age and your account balance. This is calculated when you open your Pension account, and then again, every year on 1 July.

We will tell you this minimum amount when we open your Pension account and write to you each financial year to let you know what your revised limit for that year is.

What does a Brighter Super Pension account offer?

By choosing to stay with Brighter Super in retirement, you’ll continue to be part of a not-for-profit industry fund that puts its focus on keeping fees as low as possible while offering solid long-term performance.

We’re also committed to a personalised service that means we can be right by your side throughout your retirement journey.

And of course, by opening a Brighter Super Pension account you’ll also have access to some great features and benefits, including:

• Flexible payment options
  Everyone manages their budget and bills in their own way, so we offer you the choice of fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annual payments. And you can change your preferred frequency at any time. You can even choose to have your payments increase automatically every year in line with CPI.
• Wide range of investment options
  You can tailor your investments to your specific situation and needs by choosing from our range of diversified ready-made investment options or building your own strategy from our single asset class options.
• Account auto rebalancing
  Due to movements in the market and payments coming out of your account, over time your actual investment option asset allocation can differ from your intended investment strategy. So, we offer the option to have auto rebalancing applied to your Pension account either quarterly, six-monthly, or annually. This means that at your chosen frequency we will rebalance your investment options by switching them back into the percentage options you last chose.

Note that the minimum amount needed to open a Brighter Super Pension account is $50,000.

You can find more information about the Brighter Super Pension account on our website and in the Pension accounts Product Disclosure Statement.

We’re here to help

If you want to find out more about a Brighter Super Pension account and whether it would be right for you, our team of superannuation specialists and financial advisers are here to help you.

You can give us a call on 1800 444 396. Alternatively, you can  complete our online contact form and note in the comments that you’d like to discuss the Brighter Super Pension account and one of our team will get in touch with you. 

LGIAsuper Trustee (ABN 94 085 088 484) (AFSL 230511) (the Trustee) as trustee for LGIAsuper (ABN 23 053 121 564) (RSE R1000160) (the Fund) trading as Brighter Super. Brighter Super products are issued by the Trustee on behalf of the Fund. Brighter Super may refer to the Trustee or LGIAsuper as the context may be.

This article provides general information only and does not take into account your individual objectives, financial situation or needs. As such, you should consider whether it is appropriate in light of your own objectives, financial situation and needs prior to making any decision. You should consult a licensed financial advisor if you require advice which does take into account your personal financial circumstances. You should also obtain and consider the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) before making any decision to acquire any products. A Target Market Determination (TMD) is a document that outlines the target market a product has been designed for. Find the PDSs and TMDs at brightersuper.com.au/governance. This article contains information that is up to date at the time of publishing. Some of the information may change following its release. Any questions can be referred to Brighter Super by calling us on 1800 444 396 or by emailing us at info@brightersuper.com.au.