Starting an account-based pension

An account-based pension is simply a separate account for your super that pays you a regular income stream to live on. Think of it as a salary for your retirement that’s also tax-free if you’re aged 60 or more.  

At the same time, the money in your account-based pension stays invested. This means you could earn returns on it – which could boost the money you have invested for retirement. Even better, anything you earn from the investments in your pension account is tax-free. 

Generally, to set up an account-based pension, you need to have retired after reaching your preservation age as shown below.  

However, there are limited circumstances where you may be able to access your super early, for example, if you become permanently incapacitated or are diagnosed with a terminal illness. 

Once you’ve reached preservation age, you could also start what’s known as a transition to retirement pension, where you receive some of your super while you are still working. Our Transition to Retirement page explains how it works and who it’s for.

An account-based pension uses your super money to make regular payments to you. Your payments will continue until your super account balance runs out. 

An account-based pension can only be started once you have retired and have full access to your super.  

When you set up your account-based pension, you get to choose: 

• how much you transfer from your super into the pension 

• the size of your payments, and how often you receive them, and 

• how you’d like your money in your pension account to be invested.  

Learn more about account-based pensions here.  

An account-based pension gives you:

• the flexibility to choose how much income you want to receive (as long as you meet the minimum amount) and how often you want your payments

• ability to draw down tax-free lump sums (after age 60) to pay for any large expenses, such as overseas holidays or medical expenses

• control over how your pension account is invested 

• the ability to nominate beneficiaries to receive any remaining account balance after you have died. 

Our FirstChoice Wholesale Pension gives you the power to choose from more than 170 investment options from over 70 different fund managers.  

This includes a range of pre-built investment strategies put together by the experts at CFS and a selection of individual investment funds that you can pick and choose from to tailor a strategy to your own specific goals.  

These strategies invest in a wide range of asset types, and investors can switch their money between these different options whenever suits their needs. 

Before you start a FirstChoice Wholesale Pension, please download and read our Product Disclosure Statement. This document includes all the information you need to make an informed decision about the product and whether it’s right for your needs. 

Opening a FirstChoice Wholesale Pension

Your super account – which you pay your contributions into – does not pay your pension directly. Instead, some or all of your super money is  transferred into your FirstChoice Wholesale Pension account.

In your application, you’ll need to confirm:

• the amount you want to transfer to your pension account – taking into account your transfer balance cap. You can find out how much that is on the Australian Taxation Office website 

• the payment you’d like to receive – the minimum amount or more

• whether you’d like your payments to increase every 1 July by inflation, a set percentage or stay level and only increase in line with the minimums

• if you want to nominate a beneficiary such as your spouse to receive your pension after you die, or other beneficiaries, such as your children, to receive lump sum payments once you pass away

• how you want the money in your pension account invested 

• the details of your bank account to deposit your payments into.

Once you know how much you’d like to place in your pension account, simply fill out an account opening form and send it back to us by:

Uploading the form online  
Upload a scanned copy of the completed document by logging into our secure online portal under My Account > Upload a scanned form. 
 

Posting the form to us at: 
Colonial First State 
Reply Paid 27 
Sydney NSW 2001

We’ll process your completed form within five working days of receiving it. If the form is incomplete, or we need to ask you for more information, a member of our team will be in touch.