Start strong in retirement with a Brighter Super Pension account

30 July 2025

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 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 the Consumer Price Index (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.

Retire Easy Pension – a simple, worry-free way to stay on track

Brighter Super offers you an easy and convenient way to manage your Pension account. It’s called Retire Easy Pension. This innovative solution is designed to reduce complexity, support regular income, and promote long-term financial confidence.

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:

• Simple application process: To get started, just tick a box for Retire Easy Pension on our Brighter Super Pension account application form (see further below).
• Regular, automated income: Monthly payments are automatically set to meet the Government’s minimum pension requirements.
• Automatic investment strategy: Your money is invested using a 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.

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.

Learn more about Retire Easy Pension.

Enjoy a more rewarding retirement

Brighter Super gives a dollar reward for eligible members who hold a Brighter Super Accumulation account or Transition to Retirement Pension account and open a Brighter Super Pension account.

It’s called the Retirement Reward, and it’s a portion of the tax we set aside when growth assets such as shares are sold. The Retirement Reward depends on a member’s transfer amount, and ranges from $1,600 for a $200,000 transfer to $16,000 for a $2.0m transfer (2025/26 figures).

When a Brighter Super member takes growth assets from their Accumulation or Transition to Retirement Pension account (which are taxed) into a Brighter Super Pension account (which is not taxed), no tax is paid when the assets are sold. This unpaid tax is then available to the member as a reward for retiring with us.

Learn more about Brighter Super’s Retirement Reward.

How to open a Brighter Super Pension account

Before opening a Pension account, we recommend that you read the . This includes details of the new Retire Easy Pension service described above.

If you decide a Brighter Super Pension account is right for you, you can complete our application form:

• The quickest and easiest way is to log into your account in Member Online, and on the left-hand navigation click Open a Pension account – please note, the online form does not currently include an option to choose Retire Easy Pension.
• Alternatively, a printed Pension application form (PO1) is available at brightersuper.com.au/forms (listed under retirement) – includes an option to choose Retire Easy Pension.

Further information