What types of payments can I initiate from a Pension account?

On behalf of your clients, you can initiate online lump sum withdrawals, rollovers and ad hoc pension payments for eligible pension accounts only (excludes Term Allocated Pensions and Transition to Retirement pensions) using Adviser Initiated Payments (AIPs).

Lump sum withdrawals and ad hoc pension payments will be one-off payments made independently of the existing payments your clients receive, and they won’t impact those arrangements. These payments will be paid out to your client’s nominated account.

Rollover payments can be paid to either a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) or an APRA-regulated superannuation fund.
 

What are the limits on AIPs from a Pension account?

  • You can initiate a single withdrawal of up to $500,000, or a single rollover for any amount. 
  • The maximum amount available for each request type:
    • Withdrawals: the lower value of the available cash balance, or the portfolio balance minus the product minimum and the pension minimum, or $500,000. 
    • Rollovers: the lower value of the available cash balance, or the portfolio balance minus the product minimum and the pension minimum.
  • Once you’ve initiated a payment (regardless of the amount), you'll be able to initiate another online payment after three days.
  • There must be sufficient available cash in your client’s account for the payment to be made without any delays. If there isn’t enough cash available to make the payment, you’ll need to lodge asset sale orders before requesting the payment.
  • As a security measure, you can only initiate payments into the bank account where we make your client’s regular pension payments. This is to ensure your client has authorised the bank account to receive the payments.

How do I make an AIP from a Pension account?

See the instructions below for how to initiate the following requests:

Make a one-off payment

  1. Log into Adviser Online
  2. Search for the client’s account using the global search bar
  3. Select Account Overview
  4. Select Make a payment
  5. Select the payment type and enter the payment amount
  6. Select Review
  7. Confirm payment details then select Submit. Please note your client will need to approve payments over $30,000.  

Rollover to an SMSF

Please note, you must use an approved SuperStream messaging provider for rollovers to an SMSF.

  1. Log in to Adviser Online 
  2. Search for the client’s account using the global search bar 
  3. Select Account Overview 
  4. Select Make a payment 
  5. Select Next 
  6. Select the payment type of Partial rollover 
  7. If the account is a death pension account, select the death pension declaration checkbox
  8. Select to Rollover into SMSF 
  9. Enter the SMSF details including the account name, BSB, account number, ABN and electronic service address. For more information search “Electronic Service Address” on the ATO website.
  10. Select Verify. This will verify the SMSF details against the details held on file with the ATO 
  11. Enter the payment amount 
  12. If the account contains funds transferred from the UK, enter any required details 
  13. Select Review 
  14. Confirm payment details then select Submit.

Rollover to an APRA-regulated fund

  1. Log in to Adviser Online 
  2. Search for the client’s account using the global search bar 
  3. Select Account Overview 
  4. Select Make a payment 
  5. Select the payment type of Partial rollover 
  6. If the account is a death pension account, select the death pension declaration checkbox
  7. Select to rollover into APRA-regulated super fund 
  8. Enter the Unique Superannuation Identifier (USI) of the APRA fund and select Search. The details of the APRA fund will be populated. 
  9. Enter the client’s account/policy/membership number 
  10. Enter the payment amount 
  11. Select Review 
  12. Confirm payment details then select Submit.

How does my client authorise an AIP from a Pension account?

Your client will need to approve rollovers of any amount, as well as lump sum withdrawals and ad hoc pension payments over $30,000 from their pension account via the Macquarie Authenticator app. 

Client approval is not required for lump sum withdrawals and ad hoc pension payments under $30,000 when paying to the nominated account. Your client will receive a notification from the app with the payment details.

To complete registration for Authenticator, your client must enable push notifications and complete all of the steps in the training simulator to finalise their set up. See Setting up Macquarie Authenticator for more information.

Please note you can make one payment every three days, regardless of the amount.
 

View status of approvals

You can view the status and progress of payments in Request Centre. This includes payments awaiting client approval via the Macquarie Authenticator app.

Once the client approves the payment, you’ll receive a notification in Adviser Online.
 

Re-send authorisation notification

To generate a new push notification after the previous one has expired (24 hours), navigate to the task or payment and select Resend notification.

Why can't I initiate an AIP for my client?

Some requests won’t be able to be submitted through Adviser Online (e.g. withdrawals above $500,000). If you are unable to submit a request through Adviser Online, see Submitting requests that can’t be completed digitally to find out more about how to proceed with these requests.

What’s the difference between a lump sum withdrawal and an ad hoc pension payment?

If you choose the lump sum withdrawal option:

  • the payment will not count towards the annual minimum pension requirements
  • if your client is under the age of 60, there may be different tax implications compared to their regular pension payments, and
  • your client’s transfer balance cap will be reduced by the amount of the payment.

If you choose the ad hoc pension payment option:

  • the payment will count towards the annual minimum pension requirements, and
  • if your client is under the age of 60, the payment will be taxed in the same manner as their other pension payments.

Is tax payable on payments from Pension accounts?

For clients under the age of 60, tax may apply on payments. All amounts selected will be net of any applicable tax.

In other words, the amount you choose will be the amount they receive in their bank account. This means the amount that is withdrawn from their account may be higher.

If your client is aged 60 or over at the time of the payment, tax is not applicable.

How long does it take for my client to receive their funds?

If there's enough available cash in the account to make the payment, your client will generally receive the funds in one to three business days. This may be impacted by your client’s financial institution. 

In some instances, the amount of available cash at the time of the request will be higher than when we attempt to make the payment. This could happen if an investment trade is placed around the time of the payment request.

In this situation, it will take longer for your client to receive the proceeds as we’ll need to wait for cash to become available again.

We recommend not placing any trades if you intend to initiate these payments to avoid any delays.

How do I amend or cancel an AIP?

Once created, payment requests can’t be amended. If you want to cancel a payment created via Adviser Online, you can do this from Request Centre while the request is ‘Awaiting client approval’. Payments under $30,000 are unable to be cancelled as they are submitted immediately for processing.

To cancel a rollover, or a payment over $30,000: 

  1. Log in to Adviser Online
  2. Navigate to Request Centre
  3. Search for the request using approval ID, account name or account number
  4. Select the action menu
  5. Select Cancel payment.

The payment will be cancelled. The notification sent to your client’s Authenticator app will disappear.

Chat to us on Adviser Online

Chat in real-time with an adviser consultant Monday to Friday, 8am to 7pm Sydney time (excluding public holidays).

Resolve a complaint

Everyone at Macquarie is commited to providing our clients with the highest standard of products and services available. If you have feedback we would like you to tell us about it. 

Talk to us today

To speak to a specialist complete this form and we'll be in touch.