How a little care can grow your super balance

Time to read: 6 minutes

As a nurse or midwife, you’re always there, ready to care, but it's equally important that you care about your own financial future.

Understanding your superannuation is an important first step in ensuring you’ll have a comfortable retirement.

You can do this by:

• understanding how contributions are made to your super
• making additional contributions when possible; and
• understanding how insurance works in super.

All employers need to pay superannuation on their employees' salary. This is the superannuation guarantee and currently sits at 11.5% of your earnings. It will increase to 12% on 1 July 2025.

Currently, your employer needs to pay super quarterly but under proposed legislation, from 1 July 2026 employers will be required to pay super at the same time they pay your salaries and wages.

To check when your super payments are being made, simply log in to Member Online or our app. If you think you may be missing payments, make sure to contact your employer.

You can help build your super by consolidating your accounts and making additional contributions.

If you’ve ever changed jobs, moved house or changed your name, you might have multiple accounts and some lost super. Combining all your super into one account, could reduce the fees you pay on multiple accounts.¹

You can search for lost super through Member Online. You can search for a full list of any super accounts you have with other super funds and any ATO-held super that may belong to you.

We can also help you consolidate these accounts and combine your super. We will do the legwork, so you don't have to chase the super funds yourself.

Salary sacrificing into your super means putting some of your salary into your super account before you pay tax on it.

Your super fund will tax these contributions at 15% (but if your income is over $250,000 they are taxed at 30%). For most people this will be lower than your marginal tax rate, which means you pay less tax while boosting your retirement savings. The sacrificed component of your total salary package is not counted as assessable income for tax purposes.

You can salary sacrifice a percentage, or a dollar amount every pay period. Speak to your employer if you wish to do this.

You can also add after-tax contributions to your super as a one-off or regular payments. You’ve already paid tax on this money, which means it might be money you have in your bank account, so there’s no more tax to pay when we receive it in your super.

Making additional contributions to help grow your super can help you save for your retirement. But you should be aware of superannuation contribution caps set by the government. Contributing too much could mean you pay extra tax.

You may automatically have Death cover, Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) cover and, in some cases, Income Protection cover through your super.

You can easily find how much insurance cover you have with your Accumulation account in Member Online, our app, or your annual statement.

Everyone’s insurance needs are unique and can change over time, so it’s important to review your cover. Our Insurance Needs Calculator can help you work out how much Death cover, TPD cover and Income Protection cover you may need.

You’re in control of what happens to your super, including any insurance, when you die.

Your super doesn’t automatically form part of your estate. So , it’s important you let us know who to leave your super to.

There are rules about who you can nominate to receive your super. Generally, a super beneficiary is someone who is dependent on you at the time of your death. You can nominate one or more of your dependents.

Tell us who to leave your super to by nominating your beneficiaries.