Who gets your super

You can write a perfect will and still have your super go to the wrong person.

Australia's financial regulator puts it plainly: the money in your super account doesn't automatically form part of your estate. Your will governs your estate. Super sits outside it, in the hands of the fund's trustee.

So the question isn't what your will says. It's what your super fund has on file.

If you have never made a nomination — and most people haven't — then when you die your fund may decide who gets your money. They will work within rules, but as the regulator says, it “might not match what you would have decided.”

You will see these words on your fund's website. They are not interchangeable.

Binding, lapsing. The fund must pay who you named. But it expires — these need to be renewed or changed every three years, or they lapse. This is the one that catches people: they did the paperwork once, a decade ago, and it stopped meaning anything seven years back.

Binding, non-lapsing. The fund must pay who you named, and it doesn't expire. Not every fund offers it.

Non-binding. A note of your wishes. It guides the trustee and doesn't bind them. Better than nothing. Not the same as a decision.

Reversionary. For someone already drawing an income stream from their super — it keeps the payments going to the person you name, rather than paying out a lump sum.

Not anyone. Super law limits it to:

• your current spouse or partner
• your children, of any age
• someone in an interdependency relationship with you
• anyone financially dependent on you when you die
• or your legal personal representative

That last one is the useful escape hatch. Naming your legal personal representative sends your super into your estate — and from there, your will decides. If you want a sibling, a parent, a friend or a charity to receive it, that is usually the way it's done.

• Log in to your super fund. Find “beneficiaries” or “death benefit nomination”. If you have more than one fund, do all of them.
• See whether you have a nomination at all, what kind it is, and — if it lapses — when.
• Look at the name on it. People change partners and forget this form. A binding nomination naming someone from a relationship that ended fifteen years ago will be honoured.
• If there's insurance attached to your super, it is usually paid out with the super and follows the same nomination. Check what cover you have while you're in there. Many people have more than they think, and some have three lots across three old funds.
• Put a reminder in your phone for three years' time.

If you have a blended family, a former partner, a child from another relationship, or an estate where the fair answer isn't obvious, this is the document where that gets decided — not your will. It is worth paying someone once to get it right.