Combining your Colonial First State
super accounts

You can consolidate any of your super products with us, or those you may have with other super funds.

No, there will not be an impact. 

If you are unsure whether combining your accounts is right for your circumstances, you should reach out to a financial adviser for personalised guidance. If you don’t have a financial adviser, you can easily find one on our website cfs.com.au/findadviser or through the Australian Securities and Investment Commission’s MoneySmart website.

There is also further information on the MoneySmart website, which explains what type of insurance cover members can get through their super, as well as things to consider with each type of cover.

If you are a member of FirstChoice Employer Super, your employer may have negotiated a discounted dollar-based administration fee. If you close this employee account, you will lose this dollar-based administration discount.

Finally, you may also need to consider whether your employer is making any superannuation contributions and whether there is any Regular Investment Plan and/or direct credit for the account you intend to close. If this is the case you will need to make alternative arrangements in the account you want to keep open.

No, you may have intentionally established multiple accounts. This could be because you want to maintain higher insurance cover, separate beneficiaries or to diversify your investments.

Reducing the number of super accounts can help give you a single view of your retirement savings, decrease any dollar-based administration fees you pay and reduce the complexity of managing multiple super funds. 

Combining your super accounts may result in a change to your investment strategy, as well as incurring transaction costs known as a buy/sell spread. Please refer to the relevant Product Disclosure Statement for further information on our fees. 

If the account you are closing receives super contributions from your employer and you wish for these contributions to be made into a different account, then please let your employer know by completing and giving them the 'Super Choice – Fund Nomination' form for your product.

The balance from your old accounts will be invested in line with your investment choice in the super account that is to be kept open

We’ll write to you once we've completed the transfer from the closing accounts.

We’ll confirm the amount we will be crediting to your open account, as well as sending you an exit statement for each account that has been closed. 

Before combining any super accounts we recommend you consider the impact it may have on your insurance cover and seek financial advice.

You should consider what insurance cover you want to keep and request to transfer this before consolidating your super, otherwise it will be cancelled.

As with any transaction, costs known as buy/sell spreads apply as part of the combination process. No other fees apply to this transaction. Please refer to the relevant Product Disclosure Statement for further information on our fees. 

Once we receive your instructions it typically takes 2-3 business days for us to complete the process.

Yes, you can keep more than one account. We will not combine your accounts without receiving instruction from you. If you wish to maintain more than one account you don't need to do anything.

Your adviser can request we combine your accounts on your behalf if you sign the 'Consolidate my super' form and they return it to us. Alternatively, your adviser can do this over the phone with us; however, you will also need to be on the phone call.

If the account you are closing has regular investment plan or direct debit and you wish for these to be made into a different account, then please complete and return the 'Additional & regular investment' form or 'Direct Debit Authority' form for your product before combining your super.

If you are a FirstChoice super member and have death or death and Total and Permanent Disablement cover in one or more of your accounts, you have the option to request a transfer of this cover to the account you want to combine to, by completing a 'Transfer of insurance cover (from a Colonial First State/Commonwealth Bank policy only)' form.

It is important to note that for death only cover and death and Total and Permanent Disablement cover, your existing cover plus the amount of cover you transfer cannot exceed $1.5 million. For Salary Continuance Insurance, the cover you transfer into your FirstChoice Super account cannot exceed a monthly benefit of $10,000, and where you have more than one Salary Continuance Insurance cover, the transferred cover will replace your existing cover.

If you wish to combine your accounts you can let us know whenever you like. If you don't want your accounts to be combined you do not need to do anything.