Change to the administration fee cap for income streams
December 22 2024
Significant event notice
We're writing to let you know about an upcoming change to the way fees work for Retirement Income Stream and Working Income Stream accounts. This significant event notice provides you with the required 30 days' notice and sets out the key changes that may impact your account.
What are the key changes?
We are increasing the annual administration fee cap for Income Stream accounts from $750 to $1,000 from 1 November 2024.
We reduced the fee cap for Income Stream accounts in July 2023, from $2,120 to $750. Since the fee reduction, we've experienced increases in the costs of providing essential administration, data governance, and support services to members, resulting in this fee adjustment.
We understand the impact of this decision and haven't taken it lightly. However, the improvements and benefits provided by our new operating model enable us to continue providing the member experience we pride ourselves on in an environment of rising costs.
This adjustment is designed to ensure we can continue to provide the superior level of service and support you expect from us, while maintaining our commitment to keeping overall fees competitive.
Our Income Stream account fees are still some of the lowest around
ESSSuper operates according to a "profit-to-member" ethos, which aims to charge members only what it costs to operate the fund.
This means we're committed to keeping our fees as low as possible while supporting the delivery of services that meet our members' needs.
We're still ahead of most super funds when it comes to our total Income Stream account fees.
How do our fees compare?
The following table illustrates how ESSSuper's Retirement Income Stream account fees compare with those of other super funds for a member in the Balanced investment option.*
| Account balance |
Not-for-profit super fund median1 |
Industry median1 |
ESSSuper before 1 November 20241 |
ESSSuper from 1 November 2024 |
| $50,000 |
$446 |
$569 |
$392 |
$392 |
| $250,000 |
$2,084 |
$2,465 |
$1,752 |
$1,752 |
| $500,000 |
$3,715 |
$4,600 |
$3,150 |
$3,400 |
| Effective fee on average account balance2 |
0.89% |
0.92% |
0.64% |
0.69% |
About the administration fee cap
Administration fees and costs relate to the administration or operation of ESSSuper. There are two components to the administration fees and costs:
- an account-keeping fee of $52 per year ($1 per week), plus
- an administration fee of 0.20% per year of your account balance.
The administration fee cap is a limit on the total combined administration fees (that is, the account-keeping fee and administration fee) that we'll charge you for your Income Stream account in a financial year.
Fee caps help to keep your administration fees manageable, particularly if you have a larger balance.
For more information about total fees and costs for Income Streams, including indirect costs, please refer to the Income Stream Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) on our PDS and handbooks web page.
Will I be affected by change to the administration fee cap?
The impact of the administration fee cap change depends on your account balance:
- If your account balance is $349,000 or below, this change won't affect you.
- If your account balance is between $349,000 and $474,000, your administration fee cap will increase by between $1 and $250 per year.
- If your account balance is $474,000 or more, your administration fee cap will increase by $250 per year starting 1 November 2024.
We're here to help
You can also find a copy of this significant event notice in your Members Online inbox.
If you have any questions, call us on 1300 650 161 (Emergency Services members) or 1300 655 476 (State Super members) between 8:00am and 5:00pm Monday to Friday, or by email at info@esssuper.com.au
Warm regards
Duncan Winton
Group Executive, Strategy, Marketing and Insights