Plan your retirement journey
We want to help you achieve your retirement dreams so you can safely and confidently spend the super savings you’ve worked hard for. Since the government's introduction of the retirement income covenant, we’re required to outline a summary of our Retirement Income Strategy (RIS) to improve retirement outcomes for our members. This is a great opportunity for us to showcase our range of products and services to help you achieve your dream retirement.
Our strategy
We want to demonstrate how we can help you prepare for retirement, and how we can support you through these years. Our RIS has been designed to assist you achieve and balance the following three objectives:
Income
Maximise your income for retirement.
Stability
Manage the risks (including longevity risks, investment risks and inflation risks) to the sustainability and stability of your income throughout your retirement.
Flexibility
Allow flexibility to access funds when you need them in retirement.
Our RIS is based on the following areas of focus
We want to:
- Provide a meaningful range of products, services, education, guidance, and advice (including financial advice by UniSuper Advice) so you’re equipped and empowered to achieve a positive retirement.
- Let you know about our products, services, education, and advice on retirement planning so you’re aware of the support we can provide at all life stages.
- Provide education and guidance to support you when you’re formulating your retirement plan and identify a suitable solution.
Retirement income options
Retirement income is when you use your super savings to generate an income stream. It also includes any ad-hoc lump sum withdrawals you make from your super savings for your retirement spending needs.
UniSuper options include:
- Regular income from a Flexi Pension.
- Income paid from The Lifetime Income account.
- Income paid from a Defined Benefit Indexed Pension (DBIP).
And you may be able to receive the government Age Pension, even if you’re drawing from your super. Learn more about pension rates and eligibility.
Turn your super into income
We know retirement looks different for everyone. We have three retirement income products available. These products are building blocks that can be used to create a flexible and sustainable retirement solution.
Our products
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Flexi Pension
Flexi Pension is an account-based pension that provides you with a regular income, while your funds continue to generate investment returns. You can choose how much and how often you’re paid (subject to government limits). Except for Transition to Retirement pensions, you can also withdraw additional lump sums whenever you need. Flexi Pension also lets you choose how your money is invested. You can pick from 16 different investment options across various asset classes. You can choose pre-mixed or sector specific investment options to build a portfolio that suits you.
How long a Flexi Pension will last depends on the amount you initially invest, your annual income payments and lump sum withdrawals, and how your chosen investment options perform over time. There is a risk that income payments may cease (or reduce) if you access the money too quickly, or investment returns are poor.
The key feature of a Flexi Pension is the regular, flexible, and tax-effective income from your super – and you can access your money when you want to. You can use this product as a building block for a balanced retirement solution. Given its flexibility with investment and draw down options, Flexi Pension can also be used to maximise retirement income and manage risks at a more personal level.
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Lifetime Income
The Lifetime Income account gives you the security of a regular income for the rest of your life. Payments are indexed each year in line with increases to Consumer Price Index (CPI) and are not affected by the fluctuation of investment markets. You can choose fortnightly or monthly income payments for the rest of your life.
A Joint Life option is available if you want your spouse to receive your payments in the event of your death. This means the payments will continue for the lifetime of your surviving spouse.
The Lifetime Income will protect you from all risks including longevity risk, investment risk, and inflation risk, so you have a sustainable and stable retirement income for life. The Lifetime Income account may also provide a higher Age Pension entitlement than you may otherwise have qualified for because it receives concessional treatment from Centrelink, helping you maximise your potential retirement income. However, there’s no option to withdraw lump sums with this option.
The key feature of this product is its regular, secure income for life. It can be best considered as a building block within a balanced retirement solution to provide you with strong protection from the risk of running out of money in retirement.
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Defined Benefit Indexed Pension
A Defined Benefit Indexed Pension (DBIP) is a lifetime pension option available to retiring members of the Defined Benefit Division (DBD). It’s only available to members who joined the DBD before 1 July 1998 and have maintained continuous membership since then. DBIPs aren’t available to any other members.
The income amount you receive from a DBIP is based on a formula. Payments are indexed each year in line with increases to Consumer Price Index (CPI) and are not affected by the fluctuation of investment markets.
Similar to the Lifetime Income account, a DBIP will protect you from all risks including longevity risk, investment risk, and inflation risk, so you have a stable retirement income for life. However, there’s no flexible access to withdraw lump sums with this option.
The key feature of this product is its regular and secure income for life, helping manage any cost-of-living pressures.
Our retirement income products are building blocks to tailored and balanced solutions
Flexi Pension and our lifetime income streams (such as the Lifetime Income account and DBIP) have different but complementary features. Being a UniSuper member means you can take advantage of these different complementary building blocks to create your own retirement income solution. A product combination approach allows you to balance different objectives. More importantly, balanced solutions, with both account-based and lifetime income streams, have the potential to deliver a higher income than a cautious drawdown strategy (as per the government’s minimum drawdown rates) from a Flexi Pension alone and may offer you some protection from the key risks, such as investment, longevity, and inflation risks, at the same time.
| Maximise Retirement Income | Manage risk | Flexible Access to lump sums | Estate Planning | Exit product at any time | Potential to grow capital | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Investment Risk | Longevity Risk | Inflation Risk | ||||||
| Flexi Pension | ✔ | Via investment and drawdown strategy | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| Lifetime Income | For certain members due to concessional Age Pension means testing treatment | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | 🗶 |
A Joint Life option is available Death benefit period (10-year guarantee) |
🗶 | 🗶 |
| DBIP [^] | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | 🗶 | Reversionary pension payable | 🗶 | 🗶 |
| Product combination | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Advice to help achieve your retirement goals
Need help from an expert?
We can help you make good financial decisions at any stage of your life. You might have more options and opportunities than you think, so let an expert guide you.
We offer a range of advice services
General
For general questions and advice to help you learn more about super and retirement products. This service is included as part of being a UniSuper member at no additional cost.
Select
Personalised advice about your investment strategy, contributions, and insurance needs as they relate to UniSuper products. Our advisers will develop a strategic plan for you based on your circumstances.
Comprehensive
Detailed advice about a range of things including retirement planning, non-super investment, debt management, personal insurance, government benefits, and aged care.
Work out how much money you’ll have
You can explore your options by using our online calculators – simply input your salary and contributions to see how they can impact your retirement income. To help you on your way with planning – check your statement. We provide a projection of your super savings, and how much annual income that could provide in retirement, twice each year.
Retirement Savings Calculator
Estimate if you're on track to retire the way you want and discover the steps you can take to boost your super — in just a few minutes.*
Transition to retirement calculator
Decide the best way forward when you’re moving into retirement with our transition to retirement (TTR) calculator.
Retirement Income Calculator
Estimate the income you could receive throughout your retirement (including the government Age Pension) and other sources of income.*
*This calculator isn’t designed for Defined Benefit Division members. If you want a projection of your defined benefit, please call Member Services on 1800 331 685.
Prepare for your retirement
Preparation can go a long way to ensure you're emotionally and financially ready for the road ahead.
Did you know we provide a suite of webcasts to help you navigate super and retirement planning?
- Retirement considerations
- Early retirement scheme
- Understanding retirement income (pensions)
- Framework for financial success
- Managing your financial wellbeing
- The basics of investing your super
- Super fundamentals
- Female focus on finance
We also run seminars to discuss topics like investments, estate planning, and aged care. Access our free learning resources to help you consider a range of issues when you’re planning and living in retirement.
Seminars
Learn about super and retirement planning, or get the latest finance insights from our experts.
Seminars are free to attend and you can bring your family or friends.
Webcasts
Learn about super, retirement and money matters—when it suits you.
Our plans
We want to be Australia’s best super fund – and a leader in retirement.
We’re constantly striving to improve our products – whether it’s our sustainable investment strategy, our cost-effective investment management, or our robust financial advice service – we’re working to help members secure retirement outcomes.
We’ll do a yearly review of the outcomes from the RIS. This includes the take-up experience of our retirement income products, and a review of the services and resources members are using for their retirement plans. We’ll conduct reviews of our RIS at least once every three years.
We know you want our help to choose a retirement solution. After the review of our retirement offering, we’ve identified several opportunities to improve and uplift our assistance to you – no matter what life stage you’re at.
Still working and saving?
We want you to start thinking about the basics of superannuation and your retirement goals while you’re still working. We want to help with your retirement awareness, demonstrate the importance of planning, as well as educate you on your retirement income options.
Transitioning to retirement?
We want to support and educate you with your retirement planning process. This means we need to create opportunities to engage you, provide solutions and help you make key retirement decisions while you’re winding down from full time work.
In retirement and spending?
We want to support you with a suitable range of products, services (including tools and calculators), and guidance about drawing down money so you can spend confidently in retirement despite the uncertainties of life.
The information is of a general nature and doesn't consider your personal circumstances. Before making decisions, you should consider the PDS and TMD on our website, and whether the information is appropriate for your circumstances otherwise seek financial advice.
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Things you need to know
^ Defined Benefit Indexed Pension (DBIP) is a lifetime pension option available to retiring members of the Defined Benefit Division (DBD). It’s only available to members who joined the DBD before 1 July 1998 and have maintained continuous membership since then. DBIPs aren’t available to any other members.