Three Bucket Pension

If you’re happy for us to manage your investments in accordance with a pre-determined strategy, designed to help make your savings last as long as possible, this may be a good option.

An easy retirement income

The Three Bucket Pension is an investment option with a strategy that aims to strike a balance between income stability and capital growth over the medium to long term. It’s a strategy available to retirement pensions only and aims to make your money last as long as possible. 

It will still provide you with the flexibility to make withdrawals to pay for extras, such as holidays, but without the hassle of worrying where to take it from. However, with any pension, account withdrawals like these will impact the length of time the pension lasts. 

What Is the three bucket Investment strategy?

Basically, it’s where your money is divided into three different buckets – short, medium, and long-term – to leverage the positive relationship between risk and return. 

If you choose this investment strategy, your investment is put into three investment options (Cash, Conservative and Growth) in proportions that are determined by the annual income you set (subject to a minimum prescribed by Government). The goal of the strategy is to provide you with income while also helping to manage the risk of you outliving your money. However, the strategy does not provide any guarantee that your super will last for the rest of your life. 

Is it for me?

This pension strategy has been designed for members who don’t want to make investment choices in retirement and are happy for the fund to manage these decisions. It’s been designed without taking into account your personal situation, needs or objectives. Whether it’s right for you and whether your money lasts depend on your personal circumstances. We recommend you get some personal financial advice about this.

The benefits

The Three bucket pension has a number of benefits:

  1. You can set your annual income (subject to some Government limits).
  2. Receive regular payments on top of the Government Age Pension (if eligible) at a frequency that suits you.
  3. Flexibility to access additional money whenever you need it.
  4. A set-and-forget investment strategy, providing you with income while also helping to manage the risk of you outliving your money, while not providing any guarantee of this.
  5. Automatic rebalancing of your portfolio – each year we will check how your pension account is invested and, if necessary, we will rebalance your investment portfolio.

Easy and simple

You can select the Three Bucket Pension option when setting up your account and leave the ongoing investment management to us.

Can I add additional funds to my pension account?

Unfortunately, no. Once your pension account has commenced you cannot add any more to it. If you want to add additional funds you will need to open a new pension account and close your existing account.

Need advice

Make an appointment with a Vision Super Financial Planner who can provide information and advice about your super or pension.

Bookings can also be made by calling 1300 300 820. 

Open an account

If you are ready you can open your account online. It’s as simple as that.

Or if you prefer you can request a call and we can help set one up for you.

We're here to help

You might find the answer to your question in the FAQ below. If you don’t find it there, you can call our Retirement hotline on 1300 017 589. Or complete the quick contact form and one of our team will contact you within the next two business days. 

Frequently asked questions

Centrelink needs to know some details so they can calculate payments such as the age pension. We provide this information directly to Centrelink electronically, on your behalf, every February and August. You can request a Centrelink schedule from Vision Super at any time.

No. Once you have opened an account you cannot make any additional contributions. However, you can close your existing account and open a new account, combining any additional contributions with your existing balance.

Important to know: Government changes to deeming rules could affect you if you choose to close your current account and open a new one. To find out whether your entitlements – including the age pension – could be reduced, we recommend seeking financial advice first.

You have access to make lump sum withdrawals (over and above your pension (income)) payments from a retirement pension however, with a transition to retirement pension lump sum withdrawals are limited and you can only commute your pension by transferring your account balance into an accumulation product.

Your regular pension income payments will be paid directly to a personal or joint bank account nominated by you in your application form. You can choose to receive payments twice monthly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, four-monthly, six-monthly or annually.

You need to have met preservation age and have a minimum investment amount of $10,000. Other eligibility conditions apply. Refer to the Vision Super Income Streams PDS for further details.

Eligibility for the government age pension depends on your age, residency status, and the income and assets tests. How much you receive is subject to the income you receive from other sources (including your superannuation) plus the value of your assets. If you are eligible, for all or part of the government age pension, then combining it with your Vision Super pension can work well. You can use the age pension to meet basic living costs and spending money can come from your Vision Super pension.