Superannuation Instructions for Your Adult Children: A Brisbane Plan for When You’re Not There to Explain It

You live in Brisbane, you’re managing your own affairs, and your adult kids are scattered — maybe one is still in Queensland, maybe another moved to Melbourne or overseas. Between an old industry fund from your first career, a retail fund from the job after that, and a self-managed fund you set up a decade ago, your super is the most valuable thing you own that isn’t your house. The plan is to leave your children a clear, current list of which fund holds what, who the trustee contacts are, and whether your binding death benefit nomination is still in force — without ever handing over a password.

The problem

Australia’s super system was not designed for tidy succession. ASIC’s MoneySmart guidance on wills and estate planning reminds families that super usually isn’t part of the estate — the trustee pays the death benefit under super law, using your binding nomination if it’s valid, and using their own discretion if it isn’t. Binding nominations typically expire every three years. Lapsed nominations get treated as non-binding, which means the trustee decides who counts as a dependant and how the benefit is split.

For a single adult planning their own affairs, this is particularly fraught. Your children may not know which funds you hold, what your member numbers are, or whether the nomination you signed at the kitchen table in 2021 is still current. They don’t need your password — they need to know what exists, where to find it, when the nomination was last refreshed, and which number to call at each trustee.

What the Digital Legacy Vault does

The Digital Legacy Vault is an asset-instruction register: you record what you own, where it can be found, and who you have named to receive the instructions. The simplified version (built for individuals and families) records, per super fund: the fund name, your member number, the binding death benefit nomination status and expiry date, the trustee’s contact number, and any insurance attached to the fund. It does NOT hold your password, your myGov code, or any credential. Your adult children see only the inventory you have prepared for them, and only when you have authorised release.

That boundary is deliberate. The Digital Legacy Vault is not a financial product, not a custody service, and not financial advice. It is an instructions register. That is what places it outside the AFSL regime under Corporations Act Part 7.6, and outside AUSTRAC’s AML/CTF obligations — and it is also what allows it to be a straightforward subscription rather than a regulated product.

How it works

  1. You add each super account to the vault — fund name, member number, current beneficiary nomination, trustee phone number, and any attached insurance.
  2. You name one or more of your adult children as recipients for the superannuation module. They accept, and the vault records their consent in line with the Privacy Act’s handling rules for personal information about third parties.
  3. You record the date your binding nomination was last refreshed. The vault prompts you when the three-year clock runs out, so a lapsed nomination doesn’t catch your family by surprise.
  4. If something happens — a capacity event or your death — your children are notified per your release rules and see only the superannuation instructions module, not your other modules unless you have released them too.
  5. Your children contact each trustee directly, quoting the member number, and follow the trustee’s death benefit claim process. The vault accelerates the finding step. The trustee still makes the trustee’s decision.

Why this matters in Brisbane

Brisbane households are often spread thin across the country — adult children in Sydney, Melbourne, or further afield, with a parent in Queensland holding the paperwork. When a Brisbane parent dies or loses capacity, an interstate child trying to reconstruct a super portfolio from scratch can lose weeks chasing fund identifiers through myGov, the ATO’s lost super search, and old payslips. A current instruction set — what exists, where, who to call, when the nomination expires — turns that detective work into a phone call. It also makes it far less likely that a fund is simply missed, which is the single most common way super death benefits get stranded.

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Join the waitlist

Join the waitlist — first access when the Digital Legacy Vault opens for Brisbane individuals

We’re opening waitlist access in tranches. Sign up to be notified when individuals in Brisbane can register their first super module for their adult children. The Digital Legacy Vault holds instructions about what exists and how your children can find it — not your passwords, not your myGov code, and not your money.