Beneficiary nomination

Knowing who your super benefit will be paid to in the event of your death can give you peace of mind.

If you die, having a beneficiary nomination in place lets us know who your super must go to or who you’d prefer it to go to (depending on your nomination type).

Who can I nominate as a beneficiary?

Super law describes the beneficiaries you can nominate for your super. These are your dependants or your estate.

Under super law, your dependants are:

your spouse, including a de facto spouse of the same sex or opposite sex, who lives with you on a genuine domestic basis
your children of any age, including adopted children, foster children and those by a previous relationship
any person with whom you have an interdependency relationship.

An interdependency relationship is defined under super and tax law as being between two people:

who have a close personal relationship
who live together
where one or each of them gives the other financial support, and
where one or each of them gives the other domestic support and personal care.

An interdependency relationship may also exist if there is a close personal relationship between the two persons, but one or more of the other requirements for interdependency are not satisfied because of a physical, intellectual or psychiatric disability.

If you nominate your estate as a beneficiary, this is your legal personal representative, who is the executor of your will or administrator of your estate.

Binding? Non-binding? Revisionary?

Binding nominations

A binding nomination is a legal document that means CSC must pay your benefit to the person(s) you have specified if your binding nomination is valid and has not expired.

If you are splitting your super benefit between multiple beneficiaries, you need to make sure you’ve allocated 100% of your benefit, and that your nomination is in whole percentages (e.g. 30% not 30.5%) otherwise your nominations will be invalid.

It’s important to keep your beneficiaries up-to-date and understand who is eligible for a binding nomination. The three-year mark is the maximum time you should wait to review your beneficiaries. You should let us know whenever your circumstances change, such as if you get married, register a relationship, get divorced, have children, change an interdependency relationship, start a new interdependency relationship, or if one of your nominated beneficiaries dies.

You can renew an existing binding nomination without completing a new form, as long as the renewal is received within 3 years. You can do this by logging in to your CSC Navigator account and completing the renewal declaration to confirm and extend your current beneficiary nomination.

Any changes to your beneficiaries, or a renewal outside of 3 years requires a new form with witness signatures.
Non-binding nominations

If you don’t have a binding nomination in place when you die, we will use our discretion in accordance with the law to determine who will receive your benefit.

A non-binding nomination lets us know who your preferred beneficiaries are, and will be used as a guide when we determine who we pay your benefit to. A non-binding nomination does not expire, so it’s important to update your non-binding beneficiary nominations whenever your circumstances change. Non-binding nominations can be made through your CSC Navigator at any time, or call us if you need help.
Reversionary nominations (for CSCri)

Why make one?

A reversionary beneficiary nomination binds CSC to pay your retirement account balance when you die to the single dependant you nominate. Choosing this option:
- provides certainty about who will receive your CSCri account balance
- overrules any previous nominations of any type
- does not expire.
You cannot nominate your estate as a reversionary beneficiary.

How we’ll pay your benefit

We’ll pay your income stream to your nominated dependant until your account balance reaches zero. While your dependant is receiving the income stream, they will have the authority to manage the account, for example switch investment options, change the annual payment amount and make lump sum withdrawals.

Note that if an income stream is payable to a child over 18 who is:
- disabled, we will pay the income stream until the account balance reaches zero
- not disabled but who is a financial dependant, we will pay this only until the child turns 25, at which time we will pay them a lump sum for the remaining account balance. (Otherwise the income stream stops at age 18.)

Nominating a beneficiary

How do I nominate a beneficiary?

Binding nomination

Complete the Beneficiary Nomination Form and return it to us.

Note, under super law, strict rules apply to binding beneficiary nominations. For your nomination to be valid you must:

nominate your dependant or your legal personal representative
record the proportion of the benefit payable to each person in whole numbers and make sure all proportions add up to 100%
date and sign the nomination in the presence of two witnesses who are both over 18 and not listed as beneficiaries in the nomination
make sure the ‘Witness declaration’ section of the form is completed by each witness, confirming that you signed and dated the nomination before them
keep the nomination up to date by reviewing it every three years and amending if you need to.

Failing to meet these conditions means the form you send us will be considered invalid, so we’ll treat your nomination as non-binding. If you die, we’ll make a decision about who receives your benefit and how to divide it.

Invalid or expired binding death benefit nominations are treated as non-binding nominations for decision-making purposes.

How to renew your binding beneficiary nomination

Binding nominations are valid for three years from the date they are originally signed, subsequently confirmed or amended, and we’ll help you keep it up to date by sending you a reminder three months before it’s due to expire.

You can renew an existing binding nomination without completing a new form, as long as the renewal is received within 3 years. You can do this by logging in to CSC Navigator and completing the renewal declaration to confirm and extend your current beneficiary nomination.

Non-binding nomination

You can nominate a non-binding beneficiary through CSC Navigator.

Reversionary beneficiary nomination

When you apply for a CSCri account and complete the CSCri Application, there is a section for nominating your reversionary beneficiary (if applicable).

You can also complete and return a Beneficiary Nomination Form.

Is CSC required to pay to nominated beneficiaries in all cases?

We are generally required to pay your benefit in accordance with the valid binding nomination form we receive from you, but there are exceptions to this.

We may not be required to pay a death benefit in accordance with a binding nomination if we are:

subject to a court order (such as a Family Court of Australia order) preventing payment of the benefit, or
aware you are subject to a court order that prohibits or restricts you from giving a binding nomination or requires you to amend or revoke such a nomination.

We are not required to pay your benefit in accordance with your non-binding nomination, but we use this as a guide to paying your benefit after your death.

What if there is a non-binding nomination, no nomination at all, or an expired / invalid binding nomination?

CSC may make a decision about paying your super benefit, notify all potential beneficiaries of the decision, and provide them with 28 days to object. This process is called ‘Claim Staking’, and is used in certain circumstances only.

Claim staking is the process where when a superannuation consumer dies the trustee provides information to identified potential beneficiaries about how the trustee proposes to distribute the death benefit. The potential beneficiaries are then able to object to the proposed distribution.

If there are no objections received from potential beneficiaries within 28 days of them being notified, the death benefit will be paid according to CSC’s decision. If an objection is received within the 28-day claim-staking period, the decision will need to be reconsidered by CSC.

Please note, no benefit will be paid to any party during the Claim Staking process.

Based on the information provided, CSC may or may not change its original decision regarding the distribution of the Death benefit.

If the complainant(s) does not agree with the final decision, they may be able to take their complaint to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority within the 28 days from the date they receive written notification of the final decision. If no Claim Staking is conducted (for example, in the event that the entire benefit is to be paid to your estate) the Death benefit will be paid as soon as possible after CSC’s decision is reached.

Nomination forms