In this edition of It depends, partner Scott Hay-Bartlem discusses whether your superannuation death benefit can be paid to your stepchild.
Video Transcript
Welcome to this edition of It depends, where I’m talking about whether your superannuation death benefit can be paid to your stepchild.
To whom can my superannuation death be paid?
When you die, your superannuation death benefit can be paid to your spouse, your child, anyone actually financially dependent on you, somebody in an interdependency relationship with you, or to your estate where it’s dealt with under your Will.
Where do stepchildren fit in?
Well, this is the It depends. Now, ‘child’ is actually defined to specifically include a stepchild or a child of your spouse. Now, that means that if you are in a relationship, a continuing relationship with someone, your superannuation when you die can be paid to that person’s child. So, for example, my partner’s superannuation can be paid to my son, if something happens to my partner. But that’s only while we are in a continuing relationship. If I die first, then our relationship ends, and according to the Tax Office, for super purposes, my son ceases to be my partner’s stepchild when I die. And that means that the whole stepchild thing will come to an end, and my partner’s superannuation cannot be paid directly to my son, if I’ve died first. If you think about the categories I just went through, we can still pay my partner’s superannuation to my son if I’ve died first. If my son remains actually financially dependent upon my partner, or they remain living together in an interdependency relationship, or my partner’s superannuation could be paid into their estate, and then the clause in the Will leaves it off to my son.
So, there are ways of doing it, but we just need to be careful that we put together the right method, often with an estate and a Will. There’s lots of issues about where superannuation should, and could, and can go when someone dies. If you’d like more information about that, please contact a member of our super or our estates team. Thanks for watching this edition of It depends.
