Worried about market volatility? Retire Easy Pension could be the solution
Brighter Super makes retirement planning easier with its new streamlined product
23 April 2025
Planning for retirement can feel overwhelming – especially during times of market volatility. If recent global market volatility has made you uneasy about your retirement savings, Brighter Super’s Retire Easy Pension offers a simple, worry-free way to stay on track.
This innovative solution is designed to reduce complexity, support regular income, and promote long-term financial confidence – even when markets are uncertain.
Retire Easy Pension: designed for simplicity
Retire Easy Pension gives you pre-selected investment and payment options for your Brighter Super Pension account – designed to take the stress out of decision-making and support both immediate income needs and longer-term savings growth.
It’s built around a few key principles:
- Regular, automated income: Monthly payments are automatically set to meet the Government’s minimum pension requirements.
- Automatic investment strategy: Your money is invested across short-, medium-, and long-term strategies that are rebalanced annually.
- Simple application process: Just tick a box on the appropriate form to get started.
Positive feedback and industry recognition
Launched in early 2024, Retire Easy Pension is already receiving positive feedback from members who say it’s helping them confidently navigate the complexities of retirement planning.
Brighter Super is dedicated to giving members greater confidence, clarity, and smarter investment choices as they embark on their retirement journey.
That commitment was recognised when we were named a finalist in Super Review’s 2024 Super Fund of the Year Awards for Adviser Servicing, Member Education, and Retirement Offering of the Year. We also received Canstar’s 2024 Outstanding Value Award for our Account Based Pension, highlighting the strong value we provide in retirement.
Balancing stability and growth
Retire Easy Pension operates on two fronts:
- It ensures your monthly income keeps flowing – automatically aligned with the Government’s minimum pension payment settings.
- It invests your money using three-bucket strategy, helping it grow steadily while insulating your immediate income needs from market volatility.
Here’s how the bucket strategy works:
- Now – two years’ worth of pension payments is invested in the Cash option, shielding your income from market downturns.
- Soon – half of the remaining funds are invested in the Balanced option, supporting moderate growth in the near term with likely significant fluctuations over shorter periods.
- Later – the other half is invested in the Growth option, targeting higher returns over the long term with likely significant fluctuations over shorter periods.
To learn more about the different levels of risk and potential return of each of these investment options, refer to the Pension Investment and Fees Guide available at brightersuper.com.au/pds.
This structure creates a built-in buffer against market dips while still giving your savings the chance to grow—even as you draw down your pension payments.
Example: Tom's retirement journey
Tom is 65 years old and retired in early 2024. He chose to open a Brighter Super Pension account using the Retire Easy Pension option. At the start of the current financial year (1 July 2024) his Pension account balance was $100,000.
Tom's minimum drawdown is $5,000 for this year (2024/25), this is an annual calculation set by the Government based on his age and balance1.
Tom’s investment was divided as follows:
- $10,000 in the Cash bucket (two years’ income)
- $45,000 in the Balanced bucket
- $45,000 in the Growth bucket
This diversified structure helped him feel secure during recent market fluctuations, knowing his short-term income was protected and his long-term funds still had room to grow.
Flexibility when you need it
You can withdraw lump sums (minimum $1,000) at any time. Withdrawals are made proportionally from each investment bucket, but if your Cash bucket is depleted, future payments and withdrawals will come from your Balanced and Growth investments until the next automatic rebalancing.
And if you ever want more control, you can stop using Retire Easy Pension at any time and manage your investment and payment options manually.
Getting started is easy
You can begin using Retire Easy Pension in just a few steps:
All forms are available at brightersuper.com.au/forms.
Retire your worries with Retire Easy Pension
Whether you're concerned about market ups and downs or just want a smoother retirement experience, Retire Easy Pension is designed to give you the structure, flexibility, and peace of mind you deserve.
To learn more, further information is available here:
We’re here to help
If you have any questions about Retire Easy Pension or your retirement strategy, Brighter Super is here to support you. Call 1800 444 396 between 8.00 am and 5.30 pm weekdays to speak with our team.
If you already have a financial adviser, they can help you decide whether Retire Easy Pension suits your goals. If not, Brighter Super’s in-house team of financial advisers is available to help guide your decision.
- In this example, the $5,000 minimum drawdown is calculated from his age and balance on 1 July 2024. For his age range (65-74) the minimum drawdown rate is 5%. Further information including rates for other age ranges, visit https://www.brightersuper.com.au/minimum-drawdown
Brighter Super Trustee (ABN 94 085 088 484 AFS Licence No. 230511) ("Trustee") as trustee for Brighter Super (ABN 23 053 121 564) ("Fund"). Brighter Super may refer to the Trustee or the Fund as the context may be. Brighter Super products are issued by the Trustee on behalf of the Fund. The information contained 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 1800 444 396, or by emailing info@brightersuper.com.au.
This article may contain general advice, which has been prepared without taking into account your individual objectives, financial situation or needs. As such, you should consider the appropriateness of the advice to your objectives, financial situation and needs before acting on the advice. You should also obtain and consider the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and Financial Services Guide (FSG) before making any decision to acquire any product or contribute additional amounts to your Brighter Super account. A Target Market Determination (TMD) is a document that outlines the target market a product has been designed for. Find the PDSs, FSG and TMDs at brightersuper.com.au/pds-and-guides.
