Retirement Income Stream FAQ

TelstraSuper has been supporting members’ retirement outcomes for more than three decades. 

As the superannuation industry continues to evolve, the TelstraSuper Trustee Board has decided that merging with the right partner is the best way to serve members in the long run. Following a comprehensive review of the options available, the Board has determined that TelstraSuper will merge with Aware Super. 

By joining Aware Super, TelstraSuper members will benefit from being part of a much larger fund, which provides the potential for better products and services, lower fees and access to more investment opportunities. 

Importantly, both TelstraSuper and Aware Super have many shared values, including a strong focus on long-term performance, member engagement, personalised service, guidance and financial advice.  

Now the merger is complete, TelstraSuper members have become members of Aware Super, resulting in a combined fund that is expected to manage around $237 billion for around 1.3 million Australians.^[M7]  

Aware Super is one of Australia's largest profit-for-member superannuation funds with $208 billion in funds under management* and around 1.2 million members*. Aware Super strives to deliver strong long-term returns for its members and the help, guidance and advice they need to prepare for and enjoy their best possible retirement.

Aware Super started as First State Super in 1992, looking after the retirement savings of NSW government employees. This gave them a deep appreciation of the importance of frontline workers like nurses, teachers and police, as well as an understanding of their retirement needs. Over the years, they’ve successfully brought together members from different funds through mergers: Health Super in 2011, VicSuper in 2020, followed by WA Super later that year.

You can visit Aware Super - Australian Superannuation Fund for detailed information about Aware Super’s products and services, investment performance, updates, and member resources.

*Aware Super, 31 December 2025.

Aware Super won SuperRatings Fund of the Year in 2024 and 2025^[A5] and Chant West's Pension Fund of the Year, also in 2024 and 2025^[A6]. 

You can visit  awaresuper.com.au for detailed information about Aware Super’s investment performance. 

Aware Super is a profit-for-member super fund, similar to TelstraSuper. Aware Super is led by a Board of Directors and an executive team. Christine McLoughlin is the Chair of the Board, and Deanne Stewart is the CEO. Like TelstraSuper, the Board includes equal representation from member and employer representatives, plus an independent Chair.

Aware Super started as First State Super in 1992, looking after NSW government employees, giving them a deep appreciation for and understanding of frontline workers like nurses, teachers, police and first-line responders. In 2006, it opened up membership so anyone could join. Over the years, Aware Super has successfully brought together members from different funds through mergers: Health Super in 2011 then in 2020 VicSuper, followed by WA Super later that year.

After merging with TelstraSuper, the Aware Super Board will add two new directors: one nominated by the ACTU and one by the Telstra Group. Aware Super is not a part of the industry super network advertising campaign. You can find out more about the origin of Aware Super at Who is Aware Super?

For the merger to go ahead it has to pass a strict test to ensure that it’s in members’ best financial interests as a whole, and that TelstraSuper members’ rights in respect of their benefits are equivalent (or better) in Aware Super.

After considering all relevant factors, including independent expert advice, the TelstraSuper Board has determined that members will, as a whole, have equivalent or better rights in respect of their benefits in Aware Super, and that the merger is in members best financial interests as a whole.

Telstra Super Pty Ltd no longer exists in its capacity as trustee of the TelstraSuper Fund.       

Most members will keep their existing member and account numbers when their account (s) are transferred to Aware Super.

Please note, if your member number is already in use by Aware Super, you’ll be assigned a new member number. If you are affected by this change you will be advised in a separate communication and it will be confirmed also in your welcome letter from Aware Super.

Your Aware Super account number will be the same as your TelstraSuper account number without any spaces. Your member number(s) will be provided to you with the Welcome Letter from Aware Super. 

If you only have one Retirement Income Stream account, you can also find your account number on your Significant Event notice. If you have more than one Retirement Income Stream account, you’ll need to refer to your last statements for all your account numbers. (Your Significant Event Notice will only show one account number). If you have a Term Allocated Pension account in addition to your Retirement Income Stream account, the account number for this account will be on the Significant Event Notice you receive for that account. 

Your member number is the number we use to identify you. Your account number is the number your employer uses to pay your super contributions. If you had more than one TelstraSuper account, you will have multiple account numbers but only one member number.

A Data Migration Strategy is supporting the merger that includes several rounds of testing, extensive reconciliation and auditing across the balances being transferred to ensure their accuracy.

Once the transfer is complete, you will receive an exit statement from TelstraSuper and a welcome letter from Aware Super. These letters will contain the amount that TelstraSuper has transferred across to Aware Super.

Your TelstraSuper balance on exit will be exactly the same as your Aware Super opening balance.

As part of the merger, the information we hold about you will be transferred to Aware Super which will include security questions and answers. Any of your information that is transferred before 30 April 2026 will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy. On transfer, Aware Super’s Privacy Policy will apply and will describe how your personal information will be managed from that date. You can access the Aware Super Privacy Policy at aware.com.au/privacy.

In late May 2026 you will receive an exit letter/statement from TelstraSuper, which will show your TelstraSuper account and final account balance (which was transferred to Aware Super).

After 11 May, Aware Super sent you a welcome letter via your communication preference that was recorded with TelstraSuper prior to the merger. The welcome letter will include a summary of your Aware Super account, information about online access and services available to you, as well as any other relevant terms of your membership.

No. The transfer to Aware Super will have no impact on your Transfer Balance Cap. 

Your current pension payment elections including the payment amount and payment frequency will generally remain unchanged after the merger.

Aware Super will send you a welcome letter that includes a summary of your Aware Super account and confirmation pension payment amount and details.

If you wish to change your bank details for your pension payments and/or your pension payment amount, you’ll need to do this once you’re at Aware Super from 11 May (12pm midday) 2026. 

You can update your investment option(s) with Aware Super from 11 May 2026 and choose from their range of investment options. Aware Super has a wider range of investment options for you to choose from including term deposits, Indexed and Socially Conscious options. 

Your account transferred from TelstraSuper RetireAccess Retirement income stream to Aware Super Retirement Income. A Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) about your new product will be included with your welcome letter in May 2026. You can also download the Aware Super Retirement Income PDS via aware.com.au/pds.

After the merger, there will be some changes to fees and costs. Most TelstraSuper members will benefit from lower fees and costs with Aware Super.

A direct comparison of TelstraSuper’s fees and costs with Aware Super is provided in Table 1 – Fees and costs summary comparison in your Significant Event Notice.

Important: If you have multiple accounts with TelstraSuper, you may end up paying higher administration fees as the $52 per year administration fee applies per account at Aware Super (rather that at the membership level at TelstraSuper). To avoid paying higher fees, you may want to consider consolidating your accounts after the merger.  However, there may be implications, including to any insurance arrangements, so it’s important to speak to a qualified financial adviser before making any decisions. You can also speak to Aware Super if you have questions about their products.  

Access to Aware Super’s Member Online portal (similar to SuperOnline) and App, as well as their full range of digital services, tools and calculators including the insurance portal, began from 11 May 2026.

Your digital credentials (member number and/or username and password) will be securely migrated to Aware Super. You can use either your member number or username to log in to Aware Super’s digital platform, Member Online, and the Aware Super app from 11 May 2026. If a username is already in use by Aware Super, you will need to create a new username.

If you receive a new member number and don’t currently have a username, you may need to register for online access from 11 May 2026. Instructions for this will be provided in your Aware Super welcome letter. 

You’ll be able to make updates to your personal details via Aware Super’s Member Online portal and the Aware Super app.

If you have both an Aware Super account and a TelstraSuper account, you will end up with at least two Aware Super accounts after the merger. Having multiple Aware Super accounts may incur higher fees overall. Members can request for these accounts to be consolidated with Aware Super after the merger. There may be some implications to consolidation, including to any insurance arrangements, so it’s important to speak to a qualified financial adviser before making any decisions. You can also speak to Aware Super if you have any questions about their products. 

To find out more about the impacts to your insurance by consolidating you can refer to the relevant PDS and handbook for your product which will be available at aware.com.au/pds.

Only transactions and statements from the last five years of your active accounts will be visible to you in Aware Super’s Member Online. 

You’re currently not able to view historical TelstraSuper transactions in your Aware Super account. Transactions and statements from the last five years of your active accounts will be visible to you in Member Online from August 2026.

You can check your total super contributions through your myGov account using ATO online services. This includes both concessional and non‑concessional contributions.

• If you have a valid death benefit beneficiary nomination, transferred to Aware Super and applied to all your accounts. 
• If you have a non-binding death benefit nomination, you won’t be able to make changes to it after the transfer to Aware Super as Aware Super doesn’t accept new or updates to existing non-binding death benefit nominations. Instead, you can make a new lapsing or non-lapsing binding nomination.
• Aware Super offers members the opportunity to make or update a non-lapsing death benefit binding nomination anytime online.
• After the transfer to Aware Super, if you have multiple accounts and want to update beneficiaries, you must make changes for each account individually.
• If you have a reversionary beneficiary, regardless of the relationship type, it’ll transfer to Aware Super and can be changed at any time Future reversionary nominations must be made in favour of a spouse/de facto partner. 

Third party authority on TelstraSuper accounts were not transferred over to Aware Super.

To set up a Third Party Authority on your account, go to aware.com.au/thirdpartyauthorityform. Please return the completed form by email to enquiries@aware.com.au. 

The spouse combined account administration fee rebate will no longer apply. However, reduced individual account fee caps will apply. You can view a comparison between TelstraSuper’s fees and costs with those of Aware Super in Table 1 - Fees and costs summary comparison in your Significant Event Notice.

No. You do not need to change your bank details.  

Yes, all your TelstraSuper accounts transferred across and automatically transferred to the investment option(s) that most closely matches your current investment choice and in the same proportions.  

If you have a super (accumulation) account, see your Significant Event Notice relevant to this account for further details. 

No. There’ll be no impact to your Centrelink benefits as part of the transfer to Aware Super. Your account creation date with TelstraSuper will be grandfathered and maintained at Aware Super.

Yes. The Aware Super mobile app is available for use from 11 May 2026. The app allows you to check your pension payments, transactions, balance and fees. You can also use the app to update your personal details and communications preferences.

You can download Aware Super’s mobile app from your Play store (for Android) or the App store (for Apple).

Like TelstraSuper, Aware Super provides a range of services to help members with their accounts at no extra cost. This includes general financial advice and infra fund advice. In addition to getting help with understanding your account and insurance and investment options within your account. 

Aware Super can assist with estimating how long your pension might last and incorporating Centrelink eligibility estimates, where relevant. 

If you have any questions about your new account, call us on 1300 650 873 between 8:00am to 8:00pm (AEST) on weekdays.  

You can learn more about Aware Super’s advice and guidance offering here.  

Like TelstraSuper, Aware Super provides annual statements after the end of each financial year. 

Aware Super offers a Retirement Bonus when members transfer from accumulation to the retirement phase. However some of the eligibility criteria and calculations will differ from TelstraSuper’s arrangements:

• TelstraSuper currently pay 0.5% capped at $8,000, whereas Aware Super will pay 0.7% capped at $14,000.
• TelstraSuper has no minimum eligibility period, however Aware Super’s is based on the average daily balance over a 6-month period and amount transferred.
• Continuous account tenure in a Corporate Plus, Personal Plus or Transition to Retirement Income stream account prior to the merger (and before a transfer to a Retirement Income account) will be factored into the 6-month eligibility period.
• Funds invested in the Cash investment option will not be eligible for the Retirement Bonus post transfer to Aware Super.
•  Funds held within a Defined Benefit or Voluntary Accumulation Account (VAA) will not be eligible for the Retirement Bonus, however defined benefit members who transfer to an eligible account for a 6-month period may be eligible

 You can find out more about Aware Super’s Retirement Bonus here.

Your current pension payment elections including the payment amount and payment frequency will generally remain unchanged after the merger.

Aware Super will send you a welcome letter that includes a summary of your Aware Super account and confirmation of pension payment amount and details.

Aware Super’s fortnightly income payments are processed every second Tuesday, and all other frequencies are processed on the 13th of the relevant month. If this date falls on a public holiday or weekend, your payment will be processed by Aware Super on the prior business day.

For more information, please refer to your welcome letter and the Aware Retirement Income PDS which you can find at aware.com.au/pds.

Please review the Retirement Income Payment Calendar available on Aware Super’s website for more information.  

No, your pension drawdown amounts will stay exactly as you’ve nominated. The merger does not change the drawdown amount you’ve chosen or the way it is applied.

At Aware Super, you’re able to nominate which investment option your income payment is drawn from. If no nomination is made, a default order will apply.

Under the default payment order, income will initially be withdrawn from the first investment option on the list below that you hold. If funds in that option run out, Aware Super will then withdraw income from the next investment option on the list that you hold, and so on, until all relevant allocations are exhausted.

Default payment order

1. Cash
2. Bonds
3. Defensive
4. Conservative indexed
5. Conservative
6. Conservative Socially Conscious
7. Conservative Balanced Indexed
8. Conservative Balanced
9. Conservative Balanced Socially Conscious 
10. Balanced
11. High Growth
12. Property
13. Australian Shares
14. International Shares

Your existing income payment profile will be maintained upon transfer to Aware Super. Your payment amount will also stay the same for the rest of the financial year after the merger, unless you chose to receive only the minimum or maximum income payment and have already been paid the minimum amount for the year at TelstraSuper.

For partial transfers to another complying super fund, the remaining minimum account balance is $6,000.

For partial internal transfers and/or for partial cash withdrawals, the remaining minimum account balance is the greater of 10% of your account balance or $6,000. This also applies to all once-off income payments but not to regular income payments.

For more information, please refer to the Aware Super Retirement Income PDS that can be downloaded via aware.com.au/pds

Upon transfer to Aware Super, your account is automatically transferred to the investment option(s) that most closely matches how your account balance is invested in TelstraSuper, and in the same proportions. Your pension payments will be withdrawn from the investment option(s) that most closely matches your existing drawdown profile. You can find more about how Aware Super’s Retirement Income investment options and characteristics compare with Telstra’s RetireAccess investment options in Table 3 - Investment option comparison of your Significant Event Notice.

Note in particular there are some important differences in relation to the Property investment option. These are explained in the Significant Event Notice (see ‘Important information about the Property investment option’). 

To learn more about Aware Super’s investment options, read the Retirement Income PDS available at aware.com.au/pds. You can also find information on the Aware Super investment options on their website at aware.com.au/invest (under the ‘Retirement Income’ tab).  

After the merger, there will be some changes to investment fees and costs. Most TelstraSuper pension members will benefit from lower investment fees. 

You can view a direct comparison between Telstra Super’s and Aware Super’s investment fees and costs and transactions in Table 2 – Investment fees and costs and transaction costs of your Significant Event Notice. 

For more information about Aware Super’s fees and costs, including the fees and costs of other Aware Super options not listed in the Significant Event Notice, read the Aware Super Retirement Income PDS and the Retirement product PDS update available at aware.com.au/pds.

Note: Investment fees and costs and transaction costs are not fixed and may vary from year to year. The amounts in the table in your Significant Event Notice are indicative only.

Aware Super’s daily investment switch cut off time is 3pm on a business day (AEST/AEDT). TelstraSuper’s is 4pm on a Melbourne business day.                         

Aware Super doesn’t have a cash allocation feature for their retirement product.

The final cash allocation from your RetireAccess lifestyle investment will be completed by the end of March 2026. There will be no cash allocation completed for month of April 2026 onwards.

Although the balance of your account before and after transferring to Aware Super won’t change, the number of units you hold and the relevant unit price will be different. This is because the unit price of the corresponding Aware Super investment options are different.

Aware Super has a similar range of asset classes to TelstraSuper but uses different labels in some instances, for example Aware Super uses ‘Private equity’ instead of ‘Private Markets’, and ‘Credit income’ instead of ‘Alternative Debt’. The below table compares TelstraSuper’s asset classes with the corresponding Aware Super asset classes. Note that Aware Super does not have an equivalent to the ‘Opportunities’ asset class.

There are many similarities between TelstraSuper and Aware Super in terms of their approach to sustainable investment. For example, both funds: 

• Integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into their investment processes (as outlined in their responsible investment policies);
• Implement stewardship programs through voting,  corporate engagement and advocacy and are signatories to the Australian Asset Owners Stewardship Code;
• Participate in many of the same major industry initiatives and collaborative organisations; and
• Provide publicly available responsible investment reporting.

In addition, both funds have an exclusion framework and similar investment restrictions. However, there are some important differences:

• Aware Super’s materiality threshold for thermal coal is lower (10% of revenue compared to TelstraSuper’s 25%), so it will exclude more companies;
• Aware Super’s materiality threshold for controversial weapons is lower (no threshold compared to TelstraSuper’s threshold of 5% of revenue), so it will exclude more companies;
• Aware Super’s controversial weapons restriction applies to a broader range of weapons, including depleted uranium, incendiary weapons and white phosphorous weapons; and
• Aware Super has an investment restriction for nuclear weapons, subject to a 5% revenue threshold and verified involvement.
• Aware Super does not have a fund-wide restriction for Russian-domiciled securities, although does not currently invest in Russian-domiciled securities due to Australian Government sanctions on Russia.

Other differences in the fund’s sustainable investment approach include:

• The climate targets differ in scope. TelstraSuper limits its target to listed equities and real assets, while Aware Super’s target applies across the whole fund.
• Aware Super has an international provider that undertakes stewardship activities on their behalf.

To learn more about Aware Super’s approach to sustainable investment, read the Responsible Ownership section of the Aware Super Retirement Income PDS available at aware.com.com.au/pds or go to aware.com.au/responsiblesuper.

Yes, your insurance cover was cancelled.

As part of our merger with Aware Super on 30 April 2026, the insurance provider changed from Nippon Life Insurance Australia and New Zealand Limited ABN 90 000 000 402 AFSL 230694 trading as Acenda (formerly MLC Limited) to Aware Super’s insurer, TAL Life Limited ABN 70 050 109 450 AFSL 237848 . 

If you have any insurance cover currently attached to your TelstraSuper RetireAccess retirement income stream account, this won’t transfer to Aware Super and will cease after 30 April 2026.

This means you won’t have insurance cover through your retirement income account after 30 April 2026.

If you are under age 74 next birthday as at 1 May 2026, you may be eligible to apply to TAL Life Limited to continue your Death cover through their retail insurance product.  This offer is available until 30 June 2026. To find out more you will need to contact TAL Life Limited on 1300 143 543 or visit tal.com.au/telstrasuper. Please direct your queries relating to this insurance offer through to TAL Life Limited. 

This product is offered by TAL Life Limited only and isn’t arranged, endorsed or provided by TelstraSuper or Aware Super. TelstraSuper and Aware Super do not provide advice and are not responsible for TAL Life Limited’s retail insurance products. We recommend that you consider seeking advice from a financial adviser to help you understand your insurance needs and available options. 

If you already have a Terminal Illness claim in progress before 30 April 2026, the insurer responsible for your claim will continue assessing it based on the date your claim event occurred. Claims in progress that are awaiting a decision by the TelstraSuper Trustee immediately prior to the merger date will transfer to the Aware Super Trustee for review and, where applicable, a determination. 

From 1 May 2026, all insurance claim notifications, irrespective of the claim event date, should be directed to Aware Super who will be able to assist you with any questions you may have about the claim lodgement and claim assessment process. Visit  aware.com.au/insurance to learn more about claiming insurance benefits.

If you receive a Terminal Illness Benefit into your super account and you don’t withdraw the benefit in full before 23 April 2026, it’ll be treated as a non-concessional contribution after the transfer to Aware Super. This non-concessional contribution could cause you to exceed your non-concessional contributions cap, which may result in extra tax. We recommend speaking with a financial adviser to understand how this may affect you.