You can join the Fund as an employer sponsored member or a personal member.

As an employee of a Catholic school or church agency in NSW, the ACT, Qld or WA, you will be informed by your employer of the choice of super funds available to you. Australian Catholic Superannuation, as Australia's largest Catholic super fund, will most likely be listed in these choices and may in fact be the default fund if no active choice is made.

Personal membership of the Fund is available to anyone who is eligible for superannuation in Australia. You do not need to work in the Catholic education system to become a member of our Fund. Whether you are self-employed or working on a full-time, part-time, temporary or casual basis in any industry, you are eligible to join online as a super member.

If you are a Catholic employer and would like to become a participating employer with Australian Catholic Superannuation, please call us on 1300 658 776 to check your eligibility and then you will be able to join online as an employer. 

As a member of Australian Catholic Superannuation, we offer you access to a personalised financial planning service to help you reach your financial goals.

If you need advice relating to your financial situation, you can make an appointment with one of our fee-for-service financial planners by calling us on 1300 658 776.

The Fund simply wants to ensure that you avoid paying more tax on your super than is absolutely necessary.

The following taxation rules will apply if you do not have a tax file number (TFN) recorded with your superannuation fund:

• Super funds will only be able to accept your non-concessional contributions (ie lump sum (post-tax) contributions) if you have quoted your TFN.
• If you were an existing fund member as at 1 July 2007 and have not quoted your TFN, your concessional contributions (i.e. employer (Superannuation Guarantee), salary sacrifice and self-employed contributions) in excess of $1,000 for the financial year will be subject to penalty taxes. The $1,000 limit does not apply if you joined the fund after 30 June 2007 and accordingly, all of your concessional contributions will be taxed at 46.5% instead of the normal 15% and the super fund must remit the taxes to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

It is not compulsory to provide your TFN, however, to avoid the rejection of post-tax contributions or additional taxes being imposed on other contributions, please complete an ACSRF Tax file number nomination form and return it to us as soon as possible. You will then be able to continue to contribute on both a pre-tax or post-tax basis without penalty, provided you are eligible.

Superannuation is intended to be used during your retirement. Therefore access before retirement is restricted—this is called 'preservation'. The most common triggers that allow you to access your super are:

• You reach 65 years of age
• You leave an employment arrangement after you turn 60
• You permanently retire at or after reaching your preservation age (currently age 55 to 60 depending on your date of birth)
• You become permanently disabled
• Your benefit is under $200 and you have left your employer
• You are a temporary resident and you have permanently left Australia.

For more details, download our Conditions of release: Superannuation fact sheet (PDF 200KB).

The Trustee of the Fund holds your superannuation in trust for you. That means your super is not property that you can distribute via your will. When you die, the Trustee has to pay your super to your beneficiaries i.e. your legal personal representative (your estate) or your dependants.

You can make a binding nomination that directs the Trustee to pay your super to your estate. Providing the nomination is valid at the time of your death (e.g. it has not expired), your benefit will be paid to your estate and will then be distributed according to your will.

Your super can be paid to your legal personal representative (i.e. your estate) or your dependants. It can be only paid to another person if you do not have any dependants or a legal personal representative.

Dependants can be:

• Your spouse (including a same-sex spouse)
• Your children (including children of a same-sex relationship)
• A person in an interdependency relationship with you (e.g. a relative who you live with on a permanent basis) and
• Anyone who is financially dependent on you.

There are two types of nomination you can make to inform us of how you would prefer your superannuation benefits to be paid:

1. Binding
2. Non-binding.

1. Binding nominations

The Trustee must follow a binding nomination if it is valid at the time of your death. The following conditions apply to binding death nominations of beneficiaries:

• You must be 18 years of age or over.
• Nominations, amendments and cancellations can only be accepted in a form that is approved by the Trustee.
• The beneficiary/s you nominated must be:
• your spouse (including a de facto or same-sex spouse)
• your children (including step, adopted or your spouse’s children)
• any other person who is financially dependent on you at the time of your death
• any person you have an interdependency relationship with at the time of your death
• your legal personal representative (executor or administrator of your estate).
• For each beneficiary, you must specify the proportion of your benefit they are to be paid. The total benefit must have been allocated by you on this form and the total allocation must equal 100% or else your
  nomination will be invalid.
• Your nomination remains valid for three years from the date it is made, unless you amend or cancel it before that date. The Trustee will remind you annually of the details of your nomination and its expiry date.
• Your nomination will become invalid if one or more nominated beneficiaries become ineligible (eg because one or more of the persons nominated by you have died or is not your dependent or legal personal representative or you have remarried since making your nomination or the Trustee is legally restrained or prohibited from paying to one or more of the persons nominated by you).
• Your nomination can be amended at any time by submitting a new approved nomination to the Trustee. If an amendment is made, the nomination will be valid for three years from the date the amendment is made.
• Where you do not nominate a beneficiary, your nomination has expired or has been cancelled or is invalid, the Trustee will consider that no valid nomination applies. In this event the Trustee will pay your death benefits in accordance with the Australian Catholic Superannuation Trust Deed.
• The Trustee will attempt to contact you before the expiry date of your nomination to give you the opportunity to confirm or amend your nomination, however, it is your responsibility to keep your nomination up-to-date and confirm it every three years. Where the nomination is valid and in effect at the date of your death, the Trustee must pay your death benefits in accordance with your nomination. If your personal circumstances or those of your nominated beneficiaries change you should complete a new nomination.

You should consider seeking professional advice before making or cancelling a binding death nomination to consider the suitability of the nomination for your circumstances.

2. Non-binding nominations

If you make a non-binding nomination (or if your binding nomination is invalid), the Trustee will seriously consider your nomination, but will not be bound by it. For example, your circumstances may have changed so that your nomination is no longer appropriate.

Nominating a reversionary pension to your spouse

When you start an allocated pension, you can nominate that a pension (called a reversionary pension) is paid to your spouse. This type of nomination is binding on the Trustee, but the normal conditions for binding nominations do not apply. For example, your nomination does not lapse after three years.

Making or altering your beneficiary nomination

To nominate or alter beneficiaries or dependants whom you wish to receive your superannuation benefits, simply login to your Members online account, select 'Your Account' and then 'Beneficiaries' from the left-hand menu options onscreen.

Not necessarily.

Children are dependants under superannuation law and are eligible for consideration, but there is no automatic entitlement to receive part of their parent’s death benefit.

If the parent had a valid binding nomination at the time of death, their benefit will be paid according to that nomination.

If there is no binding nomination, the Trustee must consider all potential beneficiaries, then decide how the benefit is to be paid.

One important consideration is who would have benefited from the member’s super if they had not died. For example a spouse or a minor child is likely to take priority over an independent adult child. However, each case is decided on its merits and all potential beneficiaries are entitled to put forward a case for receiving part of the benefit.

There is no tax if your superannuation is paid to someone who is a dependant under tax law.

For tax purposes, dependants include:

• Your spouse
• Your former spouse
• A person in an interdependency relationship with you
• Someone who is wholly or partly financially dependent on you at the time of your death.

Adult children don’t automatically qualify as dependents for tax purposes. Unless they are financially dependent on you or live with you in an interdependency relationship, they will not qualify. In that case, any benefit they receive will be taxed at 15% plus the Medicare levy. (If the benefit contains an insured component, a higher rate of tax may apply to part of the benefit.)

The reason for this is that super is meant to provide for you and your dependants in retirement. Tax concessions are provided for this purpose only. If your adult children would not benefit from your super while you are alive, they will not receive your super tax-free when you die.

Family law legislation gives couples a range of options to split their assets, including splitting super entitlements, in the event of divorce or separation.

Who do the changes effect?

The changes apply to the following:

• divorcing legally married couples
• genuinely separated couples (for more than 12 months)
• couples preparing a pre-nuptial arrangement before marriage
• property settlements finalised after 28 December 2002
• separating de facto couples, from 2009 (except in WA or SA).

For more information, please call us on 1300 658 776.

UK residents can transfer their pension entitlements directly to qualifying overseas funds without incurring certain UK taxes. The recipient fund must apply to become a Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS) and must satisfy certain conditions to be accepted. Australian Catholic Superannuation is not a QROPS.

If you want to transfer a UK pension to an Australian super fund, you should seek professional advice.

Australian Catholic Superannuation has developed a plan to ensure that in the event of a pandemic, we can continue to provide essential services to members.

We have prioritised all of our business functions so that, during a pandemic, precedence will be given to carrying out the most essential functions, such as making benefit payments. It may not be possible for us to provide all regular services, and face-to-face services such as seminars will be temporarily suspended.

If members of our staff are ill, you may be unable to contact us by phone during a pandemic. We recommend that you communicate with us by email.

During a pandemic, we will communicate with members via our website and by email.

To assist us in keeping you informed if a pandemic event does occur, we encourage you to provide us with your email address and to keep it updated. To update your email address, simply login to your Members online account.

The Trustee has procedures in place to handle complaints from members and their beneficiaries.

If you have a complaint, first contact the Fund’s Administration Manager on (02) 9715 0000 or 1300 658 776. Many problems can be dealt with quickly using this method.

If your complaint is not satisfactorily resolved, it should be directed to:

The Complaints Officer
Australian Catholic Superannuation & Retirement Fund
PO Box 656
Burwood NSW 1805
Phone: (02) 9715 0000

The Trustee will try to resolve your complaint quickly and fairly. If you are not satisfied with the Trustee’s decision, or if the Trustee fails to make a decision within 90 days, you may be able to take the matter to the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal (SCT).

For more information call the SCT on 1300 884 114 or visit the SCT website.

Your employer might have chosen Australian Catholic Superannuation as their default fund. In that case, they will automatically pay your super to the Fund unless you ask them to pay to a different fund.

If Australian Catholic Superannuation is not your employer’s default fund:

• Ask for a Standard Choice form
• On the form, state that Australian Catholic Superannuation is your chosen fund and return the form to your employer
• Let your employer know your Client ID in the Fund, to ensure that your contributions are paid to your existing account.

Personal contributions to superannuation are made from your after-tax salary.

To make personal contributions you can either:

• Ask your employer to deduct the contributions from your after-tax salary and send them to us with their regular employer contributions
• Send us a cheque with a completed Lump sum contribution form, so that we can allocate the contribution to your account
• Make contributions by BPAY, direct debit or EFTPOS—call us on 1300 658 776 for instructions on how to use these payment options.

Strictly speaking there is no separate tax on contributions.

The Fund pays 15% tax on all assessable income, including concessional contributions.

Concessional contributions are employer contributions (including salary sacrifice contributions) and self-employed contributions for which you claim a tax deduction. These are taxed at 15% once they are paid into the Fund. 

If you earn under $37,000 and receive at least 10% of your income from employment or operating a business, you will effectively pay no tax on your SG contributions—the 15% tax will be refunded to your super account.

If you earn $300,000 or more, the contributions tax will be 30%.

If you make after-tax contributions, no further tax will be charged.

If we do not have your tax file number (TFN), we must deduct extra tax from your concessional contributions (e.g. employer contributions). Some exceptions apply if you joined the Fund before 1 July 2007.

If you provide us with your TFN within four years, we will be able to claim a refund for the extra tax.

Once we receive the rebate, we will credit that amount to your account, provided you are still a member of Australian Catholic Superannuation.

To be eligible for the co-contribution, you must:

• Have a total income (including salary sacrificed super and reportable fringe benefits) of less than $46,920
• Make after-tax contributions to your super account
• Earn 10% or more of your total income from eligible employment or carrying on a business or a mixture of both
• Not hold an eligible temporary resident visa at any time during the year
• Lodge an income tax return
• Be less than 71 years old at the end of the financial year.

The ATO calculates your eligibility for a co-contribution after you have submitted your tax return. This means your co-contribution is paid in the financial year after you made your contributions.

Once we receive your co-contribution, we will show it on your next benefit statement.

Australian Catholic Superannuation provides three types of insurance to cover you should you become disabled or die:

1. Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD) cover, which pays a lump sum if illness or injury means you are unlikely to ever be able to work again.
2. Temporary Salary Continuance (TSC) cover, which pays a monthly income while you are temporarily unable to work because of illness or injury. You have a choice of waiting periods (30, 60 or 90 days) and a choice of benefit payment periods (two years, five years or to age 65). This is the same as income protection cover.
3. Death cover, which pays a lump sum to your beneficiaries if you die or to you if you suffer a terminal illness.

You should consider obtaining professional advice before deciding on the suitability of insurance cover for your circumstances.

For more details, download the Your insurance options: Superannuation fact sheet (PDF 368KB).

Members often don’t realise they need insurance until they become ill and run out of sick leave.

If you are enrolled into Australian Catholic Superannuation by your employer, you could possibly suffer an illness or disability before receiving your membership kit and being able to apply for insurance.

If you are an employer sponsored member, we normally provide automatic cover to avoid situations like these. If you don’t want the cover, just let us know and we will cancel your cover and stop deducting premiums from your account. If you do want the cover, you don’t need to do anything unless you want to apply to increase your cover.

If you are a personal member, we don’t provide you with automatic insurance cover. However, you can apply for cover at any time.

If you want to increase or change your insurance cover, you will need to apply using one of our insurance application forms.

Simply go to the Forms & publications section of this website and download the form that applies to the change you want to make.

If you need help deciding which is the correct form for you, call us on 1300 658 776.

If you want to cancel your insurance, you just need to notify us in writing. However, you need to be aware that if you do cancel or reduce your insurance, you will need to apply to our insurer and be accepted if you want insurance in future.

The simplest way of consolidating your other super accounts into Australian Catholic Superannuation is to let us do it for you.

Simply download and complete our Consolidate your super form (PDF 412KB) and return it to us. We will contact your other funds and arrange to have your super transferred to your Australian Catholic Superannuation account.

You can ask your new employer to make contributions to your Australian Catholic Superannuation account.

1. If your employer already contributes to the Fund for other employees (e.g. most Catholic school employers), just give them your Client ID (shown on your most recent benefit statement).
2. If your employer normally contributes to a different fund for their employees, you can ask for a Standard Choice form. Complete the form, stating that you want your contributions paid to Australian Catholic Superannuation, and return it to your employer.
3. If your employer contributes to a different fund and you don’t complete a Standard Choice form, your future contributions will be paid to the fund chosen by your employer. Your existing account balance will remain with Australian Catholic Superannuation unless you choose to transfer it to your new fund.

Many members in this situation leave their existing account balance in Australian Catholic Superannuation—for example because they want to keep their insurance. If this applies to you, please download the Your insurance options: Superannuation fact sheet (PDF 368KB) for information about what will happen with your insurance cover.

We only charge you what it costs to manage the Fund. We don’t pay dividends to shareholders or commissions to financial planners.

We charge you:

• An administration fee of $1.50 per week—deducted from your account balance
• Investment management costs that depend on the underlying costs of each investment management option—deducted from unit prices
• Operating costs of 0.20%—deducted from unit prices.

In addition there are some user-pays fees e.g. family law fees and an exit fee of $35.

We do not charge a fee for switching investment options.

More details, including the investment costs for each investment option, are outlined at Our superannuation offer. Alternatively, you can download our Fees and costs: Superannuation fact sheet (PDF 202KB).

Superannuation is intended to be used during your retirement. Therefore access before retirement is restricted—this is called 'preservation'. The most common triggers that allow you to access your super are:

• You reach 65 years of age
• You leave an employment arrangement after you turn 60
• You permanently retire at or after reaching your preservation age (currently age 55 to 60 depending on your date of birth)
• You become permanently disabled
• Your benefit is under $200 and you have left your employer
• You are a temporary resident and you have permanently left Australia.

For more details, download our Conditions of release: Superannuation fact sheet (PDF 200KB).

Superannuation is intended to be used during your retirement. Therefore access before retirement is restricted—this is called 'preservation'. The most common triggers that allow you to access your super are:

• You reach 65 years of age
• You leave an employment arrangement after you turn 60
• You permanently retire at or after reaching your preservation age (currently age 55 to 60 depending on your date of birth)
• You become permanently disabled
• Your benefit is under $200 and you have left your employer
• You are a temporary resident and you have permanently left Australia.

For more details, download our Conditions of release: Pension fact sheet (PDF 197KB).

You need to be at least 55 years of age or permanently disabled to start an allocated pension.

If you are under age 65 and not yet retired, you are restricted to a non-commutable allocated pension. This is very similar to a standard allocated pension, but your annual pension payment is restricted to 10% of your account balance and you cannot withdraw any lump sums.

If you reach your preservation age (currently age 55 to 60 depending on your date of birth) and have fully retired, you have the choice of:

• Taking some or all of your super as a lump sum
• Converting it to an income stream (called an allocated pension)
• Simply leaving it until you need it.

Once you reach age 60, you do not pay tax when you take your super. If you are under age 60, any withdrawals you make are taxable. However, generous tax concessions apply to reduce, or even eliminate, the tax payable.

For more details, download the Tax and superannuation: Superannuation fact sheet (PDF 218KB) (if you are a super member) or the Tax and allocated pensions: Pension fact sheet (PDF 211KB) (if you plan to convert your super to an allocated pension).

We only charge you what it costs to manage the Fund. We don’t pay dividends to shareholders or commissions to financial planners.

We charge you:

• An administration fee of $1.50 per week—deducted from your account balance
• Investment management costs that depend on the underlying costs of each investment management option—deducted from unit prices
• Operating costs of 0.20%—deducted from unit prices.

In addition there are some user-pays fees e.g. family law fees and an exit fee of $35.

We do not charge a fee for switching investment options.

More details, including the investment costs for each investment option, are outlined at Our allocated pension offer. Alternatively, you can download our Fees and costs: Superannuation fact sheet (PDF 202KB).

It's not complicated. To make contributions to Australian Catholic Superannuation on behalf of any new employees, you simply need to complete our online form to join as an employer.

Alternatively, you can download and complete our Employer details form (PDF 272KB).

Australian Catholic Superannuation & Retirement Fund (Australian Catholic Superannuation) is a complying, resident and regulated superannuation fund within the meaning of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (SIS Act).

Our Fund has never received a notice of non-compliance and is not subject to a direction under section 63 of the SIS Act. This means Australian Catholic Superannuation can accept all types of superannuation contributions in accordance with the SIS Act.

Australian Catholic Superannuation is a registrable superannuation entity and is eligible to be nominated as a default fund as it meets the minimum statutory insurance cover requirements for choice of fund.

• Superannuation Fund Number (SFN): 17 602 949
• Superannuation Product Identification Number (SPIN): SCS0100AU 
• Australian Business Number (ABN): 24 680 629 023

You give new employees a copy of Australian Catholic Superannuation’s current Superannuation Plan Product Disclosure Statement (PDF 558KB) (PDS). This provides important information about the features, benefits and costs of becoming a member of Australian Catholic Superannuation.

We will send a PDS to employees, where a completed member application has not been received.

Once an employee joins the Fund, we will send them a welcome pack, regular statements and newsletters.

Simply quote your employee's Australian Catholic Superannuation Client ID number, together with the member's:

• Full name
• Tax file number
• Date of birth
• Address when paying their first contribution into the Fund.

Ask the employee to join Australian Catholic Superannuation using our Membership application: Employer Sponsored Plan form (PDF 214KB) and have them forward you their new member number. Then quote this number together with their full name, tax file number (TFN), date of birth and address when paying their first contribution.

Alternatively, you can advise us of your new employee’s details by completing Section 2: New member details of our Contribution remittance advice form (XLS 81KB) when you make your regular contributions.

An employer has obligations under the Super Guarantee (SG) legislation to submit SG payments at least quarterly by the due dates set by the government. However, there may be occasions when an employer is not obliged to contribute, for example if an employee earns less than $450 in a month.

Employers who fail to comply with SG requirements, may incur a super guarantee charge, which includes SG payments, lost earnings and administration charge/s.

You must make Superannuation Guarantee (SG) payments at least four times a year, within 28 days after the end of each quarter.

NOTE: If the quarterly deadline for payment date falls on a weekend or public holiday, you should make the payment by the next working day.  

• It’s important to pay the correct amount of super by the deadline each quarter.
• You can choose to make super payments more regularly than quarterly.
• If you make your contributions through a clearing house, you will need to check the clearing house’s deadline for the receipt of payments.
• Failure to meet these deadlines means you have to pay the required amount, plus a penalty imposed by the Australian Taxation Office the following month.
   

You can choose to pay employer contributions by:

• Cheque
• BPAY
• EFT (electronic funds transfer).

If you are no longer making super contributions for any employees to Australian Catholic Superannuation, you can close your account.

You can do this in writing, including your employer number and company details.

You can change your investment option/s once a week.

Investment switches are processed on a forward pricing basis. This means that your switch will be processed at unit prices that are set after your switch application is received.

Unit prices are normally set on a Tuesday. To receive the unit price set on a particular Tuesday, your application must be received by close of business (5:30 pm AEST or AEDT) on the previous Friday.

Yes, your future contributions can be directed to different investment option/s than those investment options in which you have your existing account balance invested.

We do not charge a switch fee, but you will incur a buy/sell spread when you change investment options.

• When you move to a new investment option, you buy units at the buy price.
• The units you have purchased are then revalued at the sell price, which is lower.
• The difference covers the cost of buying and selling assets when you make your switch.

If you move to the Cash option there is no buy-sell spread as there is no cost to the Fund in making this transfer.

Superannuation is a long-term savings vehicle and the Balanced option is designed to produce a medium to high return over at least a five-year period. To achieve this, it is invested 75% in growth assets (like shares and property) and 25% in defensive assets (like cash and fixed interest).

Shares and property investments produce volatile returns and some years the returns will be negative. However, over the longer term, these assets are expected to produce a higher return. There is a trade-off between higher returns and higher risk.

We understand that the Balanced option is not suitable for everyone and that some members want an investment that is lower risk. That is why we offer 11 different investment options.

You can choose the option that best matches the returns you expect and your tolerance for risk.

Investment earnings on the allocated pension are free of tax. This means that when returns are positive, pension members receive a higher return as no tax is deducted.

If returns are negative, super member receive a tax credit that tops up their earnings.

Pension members do not receive a tax credit as their earnings are not subject to tax. This means that if returns are negative, super members receive a higher return than pension members.

As a general rule, there are more years with positive returns so, on average, pension members will receive higher longer-term returns.

Yes, fixed interest investments can produce negative returns.

If interest rates go up, the returns on fixed interest investments go down (and vice versa).

Some of Australian Catholic Superannuation's investments are 'unlisted' which means they are not listed and traded frequently in a marketplace such as the stock market.

We invest in unlisted assets to ensure our portfolios are well-diversified and that risk is spread over a broad mix of investments.

Before including any unlisted assets in our investment portfolios, we undertake a full assessment of their merits including likely returns, associated risks and liquidity (ie how easily it can be sold).

Our unlisted investment holdings include property, private equity and alternative growth assets.

For more information on the underlying details of each of our unlisted investments, download Unlisted and alternative assets - Dec 2012 (PDF 334KB).