Most of us assume that once we have a legal will sorted, the question of who gets what after we are gone is settled. But superannuation does not work that way, and the gap catches out plenty of Australians who have done everything right on paper.
Your super balance is not automatically treated as part of your estate when you die. It sits outside the will altogether, governed by its own separate set of rules, which means the instructions you have given your solicitor may count for nothing when it comes to your retirement savings.
The only way to have genuine say over where that money goes is to lodge a beneficiary nomination directly with your super fund. This is not simply a formality to tick off. There are strict rules around exactly who you are allowed to name, and getting it wrong can mean a nomination is never valid in the first place.
If you have never told your fund who you would like your super to go to, or if you have lodged a non-binding nomination rather than a binding one, the fund itself decides how to distribute the money when the time comes. That decision is made using its own process for identifying dependants and assessing claims, and the outcome might not match what you had in mind at all.
Binding nominations also lapse over time under most fund rules, so a form filled out years ago may no longer be in force without you realising it. A short check-in with your fund, perhaps once every few years or after any major change in the family, can be the difference between your wishes being followed and a fund making that call for you.
It takes minutes to update. It can save the people you love months of uncertainty.
