Cbus will introduce new death benefit nomination rules from October 16, ending renewal requirements for binding nominations and abolishing non-binding options, aiming to accelerate payouts and ease grieving families’ burdens.
Cbus will introduce new death benefit nomination rules from October 16, ending its current practice of requiring binding nominations to be renewed every three years and allowing members to complete them online. The fund said it will also stop offering non-binding death benefit nominations and remove existing non-binding entries from member accounts on that date.
The move follows last year’s settlement with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission over delayed death benefit payments, when Cbus agreed to pay A$23.5 million. ASIC had alleged that about 10,000 members were affected by slow claims handling, with some waiting more than a year for payment. Cbus has said it wants to speed up payouts and reduce the burden on grieving families.
Under the new approach, if a member has not nominated a beneficiary, the fund will pay the benefit to a surviving spouse, then to children in equal shares, and finally to the member’s estate if no spouse or children are alive. Cbus says this will remove the need for lengthy “claim staking” in most cases and shorten the death claim process by about four to six weeks.
The fund’s own disclosure says death benefits are a major part of its payments, and APRA data shows Cbus paid out A$437.4 million in death benefits in the 2025 financial year, the fourth-highest total among Australian super funds. Cbus Super chief executive Kristian Fok has said the reforms are designed to make the process clearer and less distressing for families.
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