retirement income stream
Access a regular income from your super while your money keeps working hard for you.
Apply now
Tax effective
Access tax-free income payments from age 60 (or tax offsets before age 60). Receive tax-free investment earnings.
HESTA Retirement Reward
When you start a HESTA Retirement Income Stream, you may be eligible for this bonus.
Simple and flexible
Receive a regular income paid directly to your bank account. Choose how much and how often to be paid (within government limits).
Works with the Age Pension and Centrelink
Your income stream payments could supplement the Age Pension. Talk to us about how this could work or contact Centrelink.
Invest your way
Invest in the HESTA Income Stream Ready-Made Strategy, designed to reduce risk over time, or create your own strategy.
Manage your account online
Set up your online account to manage your income stream anytime, anywhere.
advice is one of the benefits of your membership
You may be eligible to open a HESTA Retirement Income Stream if you’ve:
- reached your preservation age and fully retired, or
- ceased an employment arrangement on or after age 60, or
- reached age 65, or
- become permanently incapacitated, or be terminally ill, or
- been using a TTR Income Stream while continuing to work, and are now ready to stop working, or have met one of the other conditions above.
Your preservation age is the age at which you can generally start accessing your super.
The age varies according to your date of birth. See How super works for more details.
| Date of birth | Preservation age |
| Before 01/07/60 | 55 |
| 01/07/60 - 30/06/61 | 56 |
| 01/07/61 - 30/06/62 | 57 |
| 01/07/62 - 30/06/63 | 58 |
| 01/07/63 - 30/06/64 | 59 |
| After 30/06/64 | 60 |
The minimum amount you can invest is $50,000. The maximum amount you can transfer in is $1.6 million or your transfer balance cap, without incurring a penalty. This maximum applies to the total balance across all your income streams. Read our Income Stream PDS (pdf) for details.
The amount you choose to receive as an income is up to you – but the government has set a minimum amount that must be paid to you each year from your income stream. The minimum is a percentage of your account balance at the beginning of each financial year or on the start date of your income stream.
You can change the frequency, drawdown and amount of your income stream payments in your online account or by completing the Income stream change of income payment amount and frequency form.
Special limits apply until 30 June 2021 – read more about them below.
When you take up a HESTA Retirement Income Stream, you may be eligible to receive the HESTA Retirement Reward. The HESTA Retirement Reward is actually a tax saving. And we want to pass it on to you when you retire.
You don’t even need to apply. The Reward is automatically added to your account when you open it, whether you move from a HESTA Super or HESTA Personal Super account or a HESTA Transition to Retirement (TTR) Income Stream account.
Any remaining account balance can be paid to your chosen beneficiaries after your death. You can choose who your super goes to.
Find out more about nominating beneficiaries.
how much can I draw down in 2020/21?
For the 2019/20 and 2020/21 financial years, minimum drawdown amounts have been reduced by 50% in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Read more about how we will apply the changes to your payments in the significant event notice.
You can change the frequency, drawdown and amount of your income stream payments in your online account or by completing the Income stream change of income payment amount and frequency form.
Drawdown amounts are as follows:
| Your age | Temporary minimum 2019/20 and 2020/21 |
Normal minimum |
Maximum |
| Under 65 | 2% | 4% | 10% (TTR only) |
| 65-74 | 2.5% | 5% | No maximum |
| 75-79 | 3% | 6% | No maximum |
| 80-84 | 3.5% | 7% | No maximum |
| 85-89 | 4.5% | 9% | No maximum |
| 90-94 | 5.5% | 11% | No maximum |
| 95+ | 7% | 14% | No maximum |
The minimum drawdown is the percentage of your income stream account balance that you must withdraw each financial year.
This is the maximum allowable amount Transition to Retirement Income Stream members can withdraw each financial year.
There is no maximum drawdown amount for Retirement Income Stream members, it's your money and you can withdraw as much as you want.
Minimum and maximum drawdown amounts are set by the Federal Government at the beginning of each financial year.
How to apply
Log in to your online account and start your application via the income stream tab. This tab will only appear if you have reached your preservation age.