It depends – Can my superannuation death benefit be paid to my grandchildren?

In this edition of It depends, partner Scott Hay-Bartlem discusses whether your superannuation death benefit can be paid to your grandchildren.

Video Transcript

Welcome to this edition of It depends which is about, ‘can my superannuation death benefit be paid to my grandchildren?’

To whom can my superannuation death benefit be paid?

When you die, your superannuation death benefit can be paid to your spouse, your child, someone actually financially dependent upon you, somebody with whom you’re in an interdependency relationship, or to your estate to be dealt with under your Will.

Where do grandchildren fit in?

Well, this is the ‘It depends’. So, grandchildren don’t fit neatly into one of those categories that I’ve just outlined, so we can’t often pay directly from a super fund to a grandchild. We can if the grandchild is actually financially dependent on you, which is possible, but rare. If they’re in an interdependency relationship with you, which again, sometimes happen but is rare, but often we need to pay it into the estate. Where you have a clause in your Will that leaves your superannuation off to your grandchildren. Now there’s lots of issues in choosing the right way to pay your superannuation death benefits when you’ve died. so please contact a member of our super or our estates team to have a talk about that if you’d like more information. Thanks for watching this edition of It depends.