FAQs for joining Australian Ethical Super

The benefits of providing your tax file number (TFN) are:

• Australian Ethical will be able to accept all permitted types of contributions to your account(s). 
• You will not pay more tax than you need to. This affects both contributions to your super and benefit payments when you start drawing down your super benefits. 
• It will make it much easier to find different super accounts in your name so that you receive all your super benefits when you retire. 
• Australian Ethical will be able to use the ATO SuperTICK service to verify your TFN, name and date of birth. 

Australian Ethical Super is authorised by law to ask for your TFN.

Providing your TFN will make sure you won't pay more tax than you need to. There are other benefits of providing your TFN.

When we have your TFN, we will only use it for lawful purposes based on current legislation. We may pass your TFN to any other super fund or account to which your super is transferred in the future, unless you request in writing that this is not to be done.

Once you have provided your consent above, it will remain effective until such time as you advise us to remove it. To remove consent please contact us on 1800 021 227 Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5.30pm AEST/AEDT. 

The cost of Default Cover is calculated as an annual insurance premium using the annual premium rate and occupation loadings. Insurance premiums are deducted from your super account monthly and will vary based on the amount of cover you have under the Default Cover scale, your age, sex at birth, and occupation category. Please refer to our premium rate table in the Insurance Guide.

We offer Default Cover, which consists of a set level of Death & TPD cover depending on your age. As you get older the amount of Death & TPD cover provided to you will change, so will the premiums you pay. Premiums are paid from your super account monthly and the amount you pay depends on your age, occupation and sex at birth.

Default Cover is automatically provided when you are age 25 or older (but under 65) and have had an account balance of $6,000. If you want cover before these conditions are met you can opt in to commence cover at any time via the member portal or by completing an Insurance Opt-in Form.  

Please consider the impact insurance has on your retirement savings.

For further details on terms and conditions, please read our Insurance Guide. 

If you don’t want Default Cover to commence automatically when you reach the eligibility conditions, you can opt-out of Default Cover when you join the fund. If you’ve already joined the fund and have not met the eligibility criteria, you have the option to opt-out Default Cover before it commences by completing the Insurance Variation Form or you can call us.

It’s important to note once you opt-out of Default Cover, you won’t receive Default Cover in the future. This means you won’t hold insurance cover and won’t be eligible to lodge an insurance claim should you suffer an injury or illness. Please consider how this may affect your dependants including your spouse, children or anyone who is financially dependent on you.

We understand people’s circumstances change so if you require insurance in the future, you will need to apply for insurance. The acceptance of cover is subject to the insurer’s approval (special terms likes loadings or exclusions may apply). You can apply for insurance by online via the member portal or by competing the Insurance Application Form.

Yes – the Default Cover you receive is restricted by new events cover limitations for the first 30 days. New events cover limitations are removed after the first 30 days as long as you meet all of the conditions outlined in the Insurance Guide, under the heading ‘Are there any restrictions that apply to Default Cover?’ 

If you’re a member of Australian Ethical Super, you can have more than one super account, however you cannot hold more than one insurance policy with us. 

If you hold multiple super accounts with other funds, there may be limitations which precludes you from claiming under multiple policies. Please be aware of the terms and conditions of all your insurance policies so you avoid paying insurance fees that you may not be able to claim on. Consider the impact of having multiple policies on your retirement savings. 

If you’ve transferred your insurance cover from a complying super fund, and your transfer of cover has been accepted but you continue to hold cover in the previous fund, then any benefit paid to you under insurances held through Australian Ethical Super will be reduced by the amount of insurance cover that you continue to hold elsewhere. 

Inactive accounts and Insurance – From 1 July 2019 we’re no longer able to provide insurance cover through your super when your account has been inactive (regardless of your account balance) unless you let us know you’d like to continue to receive insurance.  

An account is considered inactive if money hasn’t been paid into your account for a continuous period of 16 months.  

You can choose to make a valid election to keep your insurance via the member portal or by completing the Insurance Opt-In Form. You still need to make sure you have enough money in your super to pay for insurance premiums on a monthly basis.

A return is a loss or gain on your investment which is usually expressed as a percentage. Our investment option returns are visible through the daily unit prices and are reported on a monthly basis on our website. A dollar return for your account is also provided on your member portal in the account summary section of the dashboard.  

NOTE: Our reported performance does not include your account administration fee, or any insurance premiums paid through your account.  

Return of capital and the performance of your investment in the fund are not guaranteed. You should also remember that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. 

Investment’s that generate higher returns also tend to have higher levels of risk (often referred to as volatility).  

Investments that carry less risk usually provide smaller, more stable returns but may not perform strong enough for you to save as much as you need for the future and typically doesn’t grow higher than the rate of inflation. 

Different investments come with different levels of risk so it comes down to choosing the investments that align with your goals, stage of life and risk profile.  

We recommend speaking to a financial adviser to better understand which investment options are right for you at your different stages of life.  

More information about the risk and return characteristics of our investment options can be found in the Product Disclosure Statement and Additional Information Booklet. 

Yes. You can choose just one investment option or spread your super balance across a mix of our seven investment options. 

If you’re a new member you’ll be asked to select whether you’d like to choose your investment option(s) or be placed in our default MySuper option which is the ‘Balanced (Accumulation)’ option in the join form. 

To change your investment option(s) at another time, you can log into your account and select investments from the drop down menu, or by completing the Change of investment option form. Please note when you change your investment option(s) you will incur a buy/sell spread fee. 

An asset is something you invest in, such as property, shares, bonds or cash. A group of property investments form an asset class, and so do a group of shares. Assets usually fall into two main categories: defensive and growth. 

Defensive assets are typically less risky and generally provide more stable returns over the short term but tend to produce lower returns over the long run. Cash and Fixed Interest are examples of defensive assets. 

Growth assets are typically higher risk and provide more volatile returns in the short term but tend to produce higher returns over the long term. Shares and property are examples of growth assets. 

We don’t charge a switching fee but you do need to consider the Buy-Sell spread which is applied to the unit price to calculate the Buy and Sell unit prices which are used in processing a switch.  

When processing a switch, the Sell unit price is used in selling units in one investment option and the Buy unit price is used in buying units in the new investment option. More information on our Buy-Sell spreads is available on our fees page. 

Members can switch between our investment options at any time. You can do this by logging in to your online account and navigating to Investments in the menu.

Generally, investment switches processed on a Business Day will be processed using the next Business Day’s unit price.

There could be benefits to combining your other super with your Australian Ethical Super account:

• Our portfolio is 75% less carbon intensive: The carbon intensity (tonnes of CO2 equivalent per dollar company revenue) for our listed share investments at 30 June 2024 is 75% lower than a mainstream share market benchmark^(1,2)
  
• You could save on fees
  
  
• Easier to keep track: Less paperwork and track your super balance more easily.

Click here to learn more about combining your super.

If you are already a member:

You can combine your super in your member portal.

• Login then go to ‘Combine super’ in the ‘Your to do list’
• OR go to ‘More’ then ‘Combine Super’
• OR fill in our super rollover form and upload it to your member portal

Alternatively, you can request to combine your super:

• in your myGov account
• OR by calling and informing us of your previous fund name(s) and member/account number(s)

If you are not a member yet:

You can join online and roll your super over combine your super (rollover) during the join process. We’ll search for your existing super with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) using 2 forms of Australian government ID and your Tax File Number (TFN).
You can review the search results to decide how much to transfer.

Then sit back & relax, we’ll do the rest and inform you when it’s done, often after 7 - 10 business days.

If you have any questions, please call us on 1800 021 227 8:30am to 5:30pm (AEST), Monday - Friday. 

You can combine your super funds through your member portal, by filling in our super rollover form and uploading it via your member portal or by calling 1800 021 227.

1. Consider Insurance
   If you have insurance with another fund, you may lose your cover when you rollover all your funds to Australian Ethical Super. Consider that you can either: 
   – Keep your existing fund’s cover; OR 
   – Transfer insurance cover after you join 
   
   You may be eligible to transfer the insurance cover you have with your other fund over to us using the Transfer of insurance cover form.
   
   Please refer to the Insurance Guide or call us for more information.
   
   
   
2. Check with your employer 
   Check whether combining your super will affect how much your employer contributes. 
   
   
3. Make an informed decision
   Please read the Product Disclosure Statement and Target Market Determination before making a decision. We recommend you seek professional advice from a licensed financial adviser. This is particularly important if you're in a defined benefit fund. 
   
   
4. You might not be able to transfer some of your super
   Certain funds, such as some government funds, have rules that do not allow you to transfer your super to another fund. If your request to transfer your super is rejected by your other fund, we will let you know. 

The benefits of providing your tax file number (TFN) are:

• Australian Ethical will be able to accept all permitted types of contributions to your account(s). 
• You will not pay more tax than you need to. This affects both contributions to your super and benefit payments when you start drawing down your super benefits. 
• It will make it much easier to find different super accounts in your name so that you receive all your super benefits when you retire. 
• Australian Ethical will be able to use the ATO SuperTICK service to verify your TFN, name and date of birth. 

Australian Ethical Super is authorised by law to ask for your TFN.

Providing your TFN will make sure you won't pay more tax than you need to. There are other benefits of providing your TFN.

When we have your TFN, we will only use it for lawful purposes based on current legislation. We may pass your TFN to any other super fund or account to which your super is transferred in the future, unless you request in writing that this is not to be done.

Once you have provided your consent above, it will remain effective until such time as you advise us to remove it. To remove consent please contact us on 1800 021 227 Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5.30pm AEST/AEDT. 

First you need to make sure you have an account with us.  You can do this by joining online. During the limited service period, we will securely hold onto your details, update you regularly via email, and process your application as soon as we can. After your application is processed, we will send you your new account details to commence combining funds from your SMSF to your new Australian Ethical superannuation account.  

Australian Ethical must use SuperStream to roll over your super benefits. This means your SMSF will need an electronic service address (ESA) and Australian business number (ABN). You can get an ESA from an SMSF messaging provider or through your SMSF intermediary/administrator. 

For more information, please refer to the ATO self-managed super fund rollover page. 

In the join form, we will guide you to provide information to your employer after your account is created.

If you have any issues with it in the join form, you can send this pre-filled email template to your employer:

Email template 

You may also need to provide a:

• Notice of Compliance (also called a Letter of Compliance)
• Choice of superannuation fund form

If the template doesn’t work, please provide these info:

• USI/SPIN: AET0100AU
• Fund name: Australian Ethical Super
• Fund phone no: 1800 021 227
• Fund ABN: 49 633 667 743
• Fund address: GPO Box 3117
Brisbane QLD 4001
• Member number starting with '7': find this number in your welcome email from us

We cannot provide your employer with bank account details. Australian Ethical accepts payments from any SuperStream compliant clearing house. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) also offers a Small Business Superannuation Clearing House at no charge for eligible small businesses. 

You can find your BPay details for contributions in your member portal.

• Login then go to ‘Transactions’
• Go to ‘Make a contributions’
• Your BPay details will be displayed