Our services · QSuper members
Advice for QSuper members, across your whole position.
Your fund’s advice covers your account. The decisions that set up your retirement rarely stop there. We advise QSuper members across Brisbane, Logan and the Gold Coast on the whole position: your super, your spouse’s super, tax, the Age Pension and the timing. The information on this page is general only and is not personal advice.
Free first meeting. No obligation.
The short answer
What can an adviser add if my super is with QSuper?
A wider frame than the fund’s own advice service is scoped to give. QSuper’s advice service is included with your membership and is worth using: it covers your QSuper account, by phone, with appointment waits the fund aims to keep to four weeks. What sits outside that scope is the whole picture: your spouse’s super, money outside super, tax across both of you, the Age Pension, and the timing calls that cannot be unmade. That is the advice we provide. Advice from outside your fund, across your whole position.
“It’s not easy to compare an Accumulation account to a Defined Benefit account.”
ART Defined Benefit Account Guide, issued 1 July 2026
That sentence is the fund’s own, and its guide goes on to recommend speaking to a financial planner before closing a Defined Benefit account. If you hold one, start with our free QSuper defined benefit guide, then bring the questions it cannot answer about your situation to a first meeting.
Great Advice is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, QSuper or Australian Retirement Trust. QSuper accounts sit inside ART’s Government Division. Fund advice facts are from ART’s published advice pages and guides, July 2026.
The one-way doors
Six decisions we pressure-test. Before you sign.
Every one of these is permanent or time-boxed under the scheme rules. The guide explains the mechanics; advice applies them to your own numbers and your own dates.
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01 Leave or stay
One-wayno rejoining later
Nothing moves until the comparison is done
ART’s guide is plain: leave the Defined Benefit account and you cannot re-join. The comparison the fund itself calls not easy is exactly the one to do slowly, with the fee-free structure and the premium-free insurance priced in before any form is signed.
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02 DRB or discounted transfer
45-97%of the employer part, by age
Get the transfer quote before you resign
Resign before 55 and the default keeps a Deferred Retirement Benefit growing with wages until 55. The optional transfer value is discounted on a table the fund publishes. We test the quote against your alternatives before you elect anything.
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03 The exit date
1 Julysalary averaging from 54
Pick the date with the salary rules in view
Final salary keys off 1 July figures and averages the last two once you are 54 or older, so the same resignation a few months apart can produce a different benefit. Exit timing is a planning input, not an afterthought.
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04 TTR from a defined benefit
Permanentmultiple reduction
Model it before transferring a dollar
Money moved into a transition to retirement account cannot move back, and your multiple falls in proportion. The strategy has to clear a higher bar than it does for accumulation members, which is a modelling exercise, not a rule of thumb.
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05 Lifetime Pension or income account
60 to 80purchase window
Design the split, then commit
After the six-month cooling-off a Lifetime Pension purchase is permanent, aside from a terminal medical condition exit. The split between pooled lifetime income and a flexible income account changes your tax and Age Pension position, and how much flexibility you keep.
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06 The quiet tax lines
Div 293deferred to first payment
Check what is accruing before retirement
Higher earners can carry a deferred Division 293 debt that falls due at the first benefit payment, and the notional contribution formula can push voluntary super contributions over the concessional cap without anyone noticing until the assessment arrives.
Mechanics for every row are in the QSuper defined benefit guide. Accumulation members: the same whole-of-position questions apply to your contributions, investment options, insurance and retirement income, without the one-way doors.
General advice only. This page does not consider your objectives, financial situation or needs. Consider whether it is appropriate for your circumstances before acting. Scheme rules are summarised from ART’s published guides and can change.
What happens next
The first meeting, step by step
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Step 1
Book a meeting
Pick a time online or call. The first meeting is free.
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Step 2
Short questionnaire
A few questions before we meet, so the hour is about you.
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Step 3
Bring your statements
Your latest benefit statement, plus a transfer quote if you have one.
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Step 4
Meet your way
Springwood office, phone or video. 45 to 60 minutes.
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Step 5
Scope the work
What we would advise on, and what stays out of scope.
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Step 6
Engagement and fee
The scope and the dollar fee, in writing, before anything starts.
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Step 7
Statement of Advice
The recommendations, with the reasons and costs documented.
Common questions
Do you work for QSuper or Australian Retirement Trust?
No. Great Advice is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, QSuper or Australian Retirement Trust. We are authorised representatives of Akumin Financial Planning Pty Ltd, AFSL 232706, and we do not need you to move your super to advise you.
Should I use QSuper’s own advice service first?
It is included with your membership and worth using for questions about your QSuper account. Where it stops is scope: it looks at that account, not at your spouse’s super, your other assets, your tax or your Age Pension position. Many clients use both, the fund for account questions and us for the whole position.
Can you advise on the defined benefit decisions?
Yes. The DRB versus transfer election, exit timing around the final salary rules, transition to retirement, and the Lifetime Pension versus income account split are the decisions we pressure-test with you before anything is signed. Our defined benefit guide covers the mechanics free of charge.
What does the advice cost?
The first meeting is free and no obligation. If we proceed, the fee is a fixed dollar amount agreed in writing before any work starts. Most initial advice sits between $3,300 and $6,600 depending on scope, and the published ranges are on our fees page.
Do I have to leave QSuper to get advice from you?
No, and the starting point is usually the opposite. The defined benefit rules make staying put the default worth testing, and plenty of advice ends with the account exactly where it was. What changes is that the decision is made deliberately rather than by a form.
I am an accumulation member, not defined benefit. Is this page still for me?
Yes. Contribution strategy, investment options, insurance inside super and how the account becomes retirement income are the same whole-of-position questions, without the one-way doors. The free first meeting works the same way.
Your move
Bring your benefit statement.
One conversation before you sign anything you cannot undo. Free first meeting. No obligation.
