Retirement fees and costs
Where every dollar is hard at work for your retirement
Our fees and costs
We charge fees and costs to cover the cost of managing your income accounts, which includes admin fees and costs, investment fees and costs, and transaction costs1.
There are no joining fees, and you won’t be charged for changing your CareSuper investments or making withdrawals. We also don’t have buy-sell spreads, so you can manage your account without worrying about extra costs.
The fees listed below are for our retirement income account members. To view our accumulation fees, head over to our fees and costs page.
Admin fees and costs
You pay $67.60 + 0.10% of your account balance pa, capped at $817.60.1, 2, 3
We help limit the costs you pay by capping the percentage-based part of our admin fee.
These fees are calculated daily and deducted from your account at the end of each month or when you close your account. You can see these fees in your transactions in Member Online and in your annual member statements.
We may deduct extra funds from our reserves to cover administration expenses beyond what’s already deducted from member accounts. Importantly, this isn’t deducted from your account. In 2023-24 we deducted approximately 0.11% of net assets per member from general reserves, but this amount can vary from year to year.
Investment fees and costs and transaction costs
Investment fees and costs and transaction costs vary depending on the investment option(s) you’ve selected.
These fees represent the internal and external cost of professionally managing the investments in your super account. Our size and scale enables us to keep these fees competitive.
These fees are deducted from investment returns before being applied to your account through the daily calculation of unit prices.2,4,5
Since these costs aren’t directly deducted from your account, you won’t see them listed in your Member Online transactions, but they will be detailed in your annual member statements.
| Investment option | Retirement income | Transition to retirement income | ||
| Estimated investment fees and costs (% of assets each year) | Estimated transaction costs (% of assets each year) | Estimated investment fees and costs (% of assets each year) | Estimated transaction costs (% of assets each year) | |
| Pre-mixed options | ||||
| Balanced | 0.45% | 0.07% | 0.45% | 0.07% |
| Growth | 0.56% | 0.08% | 0.56% | 0.08% |
| Alternative Growth6 | 0.58% | 0.06% | 0.57% | 0.06% |
| Sustainable Balanced | 0.35% | 0.09% | 0.35% | 0.09% |
| Conservative Balanced | 0.40% | 0.06% | 0.40% | 0.06% |
| Capital Stable | 0.37% | 0.05% | 0.37% | 0.05% |
| Asset class options | ||||
| Overseas Shares | 0.40% | 0.05% | 0.40% | 0.05% |
| Australian Shares | 0.45% | 0.08% | 0.45% | 0.08% |
| Property6 | 0.48% | 0.10% | 0.48% | 0.10% |
| Fixed Interest | 0.19% | 0.02% | 0.19% | 0.02% |
| Cash | 0.08% | 0.00% | 0.08% | 0.00% |
| Long-term (Managed Income only) | 0.43% | 0.07% | N/A | N/A |
CareSuper and Spirit Super merged on 1 November 2024. Because of this, the actual fees and costs from 1 November 2024 are likely to be different to what’s on this page. Please read your PDS for more details.
See our fees in action
Here’s what you might expect to pay in fees and costs over a year if you have $50,000 invested in our Balanced option in a retirement income account.
Protecting low-balance members
If your account balance is under $6,000 at the end of the financial year or when you close your account, certain administration and investment fees and costs are capped at 3% of your balance. If you’ve paid more than this, we’ll refund the extra amount.
Capped admin fees mean more super for your future
We keep costs in check by capping the percentage-based admin fees at $750 per year.
It’s important to review all the details about fees and costs to understand how they might affect your investment. For an in-depth look into our fees and costs, take a look at the relevant PDS.
Other fees
We’re here to help you make the most of your super! That’s why you can access general information, education, and personal advice about your CareSuper account at no extra cost—it’s all included in the admin fees you already pay.
If you need advice on other areas of your finances or have more complex needs, we’ve got you covered too. There might be an additional fee, but we’ll always explain everything upfront, and you’ll only pay for services you agree to. If the advice is about your CareSuper account and you’re happy for it, the fees can be paid directly from your account. You’ll see all the details in a Statement of Advice. For more information, check out our Paying advice fees from your CareSuper account fact sheet.
Extra fees apply if you choose to invest in our Direct Investment option (DIO).
Please note the DIO is not available in TTR Income or Managed Income accounts.
Activity fees may also apply depending on the investment and activity you choose in the DIO.
DIO administration fee
A DIO administration fee of $120 each year is deducted from your account.
This is calculated daily and deducted at the end of each month from your account, or when your account is closed.
This fee is in addition to the administration fees you pay on your CareSuper account and will be deducted in accordance with your instruction for future transactions (it won’t be deducted from your DIO investments).
Brokerage
When trading listed securities via the DIO, brokerage fees will apply for each trade as follows:
| Trade amount | Brokerage fee |
| $0 - $20,000 | $22.00 |
| $20,001 - $10,000,000 | 0.11% |
Brokerage is an additional fee paid at the time of trade. This fee will either be added to the cost of purchase or deducted from the sale proceeds of each transaction.
Term deposit costs
If you hold a term deposit in the DIO and you request to break it before it matures, the term deposit provider may charge a fee or reduce the interest you earn. For more details, read our Direct Investment option guide.
Other fees and costs
Fees and costs may apply to the exchange traded funds (ETFs) and listed investment companies (LICs) offered in the DIO. They are charged or incurred by the ETF or LIC issuer as an annual percentage for managing investments. The costs for ETFs and LICs range from an estimated 0.03% to 2.00% per year, based on the experience for the financial year ending 30 June 2024, and may change from time to time because of changes in the ETF or LIC issuer’s fees from year to year. To find out more, check the relevant product disclosure statement or other disclosure documents available from the website of each ETF or LIC issuer.
How we invest
1 Other fees apply. For more details read the relevant PDS. If you hold more than one Flexible Income or Managed Income account, the $67.60 yearly fee is only charged once and will be applied proportionally across all income accounts based on the number of days each account has been open during the month. The percentage fee cap of $750 will apply to the percentage-based administration fees and costs deducted from the combined total of these income accounts.
2 If your account balance for a product offered by CareSuper is less than $6,000 at 30 June each year, certain fees and costs charged to you in relation to administration and investments are capped at 3% of the account balance. Any amount charged in excess of that cap must be refunded. The fee cap also applies when you close your account.
3 If needed, additional amounts may be deducted from fund assets held in general reserves to cover administration expenses that exceed the admin fees and costs deducted from member accounts in a year. This isn’t deducted from your account. We estimate this could be 0.11% of net assets in 2024-25, based on fees and costs for the financial year ending 30 June 2024. The percentage will vary from year to year.
4 Based on the fees and costs for the financial year ending 30 June 2024, with the exception of the Alternative Growth and Property options. The percentage will vary from year to year.
5 Investment fees and costs include an estimated amount of 0.00% - 0.17% for performance-related fees, depending on the investment option. The calculation basis for these amounts of performance fees is set out in the relevant PDS.
6 Alternative Growth and Property options are new options as at 1 November 2024. The investment fees and costs and transaction costs are our reasonable estimate of the investment fees and transaction costs for the financial year ending 30 June 2025, based on information available to us at the date of preparation of our PDS. The percentage will vary from year to year.
7 This amount includes an estimated $55.00 deducted from reserves (not from your account).
^ On 1 November 2024, the former CARE Super fund merged into Spirit Super and the investment options were aligned with the former CARE Super fund investment options (other than the Long-term option (Managed Pension only)). The performance figures utilised reflect the performance for the corresponding former CARE Super fund investment options for the period before 1 November 2024. Performance history for Spirit Super investment options prior to 1 November 2024 are available here.