About Spouse accounts

If you open a UniSuper Spouse Account, you and your spouse may both benefit in many ways:

• If your spouse earns a low income, you may be entitled to a tax offset if you make contributions to their account.
• Your spouse can choose how their super is invested.
• Your spouse has the option of purchasing Death, Disablement and Income Protection cover through UniSuper (if eligible).
• Your spouse has access to certain UniSuper pensions. 

Who can join?

You are eligible to join UniSuper as a spouse member if you are the spouse of a current UniSuper member, and are either:

• under age 65 (whether you are working or not), or
• aged 65 or over, but under age 70, and have been gainfully employed on at least a part-time basis (i.e. you have worked for at least 40 hours in a period of not more than 30 consecutive days in the financial year in which the contribution is made (this is known as the work test).

Who is a spouse?

A ‘Spouse’ in relation to a UniSuper member is:

• a person to whom you are legally married
• a person, whether of the same or the opposite sex, who is in a relationship with the UniSuper member that is registered under an Australian State or Territory law, or
• a person, whether of the same or the opposite sex, with whom you are in a relationship and not legally married, but who lives with you on a genuine domestic basis as a couple.

Contributions

A Spouse Account can only be established with an eligible contribution - either a voluntary member contribution (provided by the sponsoring member), or a contribution made by way of a contribution split.

You and your spouse may both make after-tax lump sum contributions into the Spouse Account as often as you wish. Your spouse may also consolidate any super they have with other funds into UniSuper.

In certain circumstances, you can share your superannuation contributions with your spouse. See the Super contribution splitting with your spouse fact sheet for more details.

You and your spouse can make contributions by:

• completing a Spouse account contribution form and returning it to UniSuper together with your cheque (payable to UniSuper Limited), or
• via BPAY.

If your spouse's employer offers choice of fund, their UniSuper Spouse Account can also receive their regular employer contributions. Your spouse simply needs to nominate UniSuper to receive their employer contributions on a Standard Choice Form.

Note, the government imposes limits on the total amount of contributions you can make to superannuation in each financial year and still receive concessional tax treatment on those contributions. Please refer to our Super for your spouse product disclosure statement for details.

Investment choice

Spouse Account members can choose how their account is invested and UniSuper provides a range of investment options you can choose from. You can also change your investment choice. However, if you do so you may incur an investment switching fee.

When deciding how to invest your super, it’s important to choose investments that you feel comfortable with and which are best suited to your investment needs.

For important information on how the investment options work download and read the Investing for the future booklet.

Optional Insurance cover

Subject to eligibility, Spouse Account members automatically receive and start to pay for one unit of Death and Disablement or Death-only insurance cover. Spouse Account members may also be eligible for optional Income Protection insurance cover.

For more details about optional insurance cover, such as eligibility and cost of cover, download and read the Optional insurance cover for members booklet.

How to open a Spouse Account

Note, a Spouse Account can only be established with an eligible contribution - either a voluntary member contribution (provided by the sponsoring member), or a contribution made by way of a contribution split.

To open a Spouse Account, you and your spouse must:

• Carefully read the Super for your spouse product disclosure statement.
• Think about how to invest your super, who you would like to receive your benefit if you die and your preferred insurance cover arrangements.
• Complete a Spouse Account application form.
• If your spouse wants to rollover savings from other funds, they should also complete a Combine my super (rollover) form. See Get your super together.
• Send the completed form(s) to UniSuper, along with a cheque made payable to UniSuper Limited as the eligible contribution to establish your Spouse Account.

Fees and costs

More information