Death claim payment

A death claim payment is money that’s payable after a Media Super member passes away. It may include:

• The member’s super balance.
• An insurance payment, if the member held insurance cover with Media Super when they died.

There are strict laws about who can receive a death claim payment. In most cases, the benefit goes to:

• The member’s dependants, who must be either:
  • their spouse (including de-facto spouse and partners of the same sex),
  • their child/children (including their partner’s children),
  • someone who was financially dependent on them, or
  • someone they were in an interdependency relationship with.

and/or:

• The member’s legal personal representative

The member might have chosen who they want to receive their death benefit by making a binding or non-binding beneficiary nomination.

You can find more information about eligible beneficiaries on our Nominate a beneficiary page.

Our goal is to work with you to ensure we receive all the information needed to assess your claim as soon as possible. We may need you to provide certain documents and additional information. We’ll let you know if that’s the case.

As part of our responsibility, Media Super will consider the member’s wishes and the information provided by claimants. We generally need to identify and contact all potential beneficiaries.

This process can take some time, but it’s important to make sure the death claim payment goes to the right person or people.

We understand that this may be a difficult time for you, so we aim to make the process as simple as possible. However, if you decide to use a lawyer or another third party to make a claim on your behalf, you’ll need to complete a Third party authority - Death Claims (PDF) form.

We’ll let you know what information and documents we need in the letter we send you. Please make sure you provide all requested information, as this will help us assess your claim as quickly as possible.

Once you have everything ready, double-check you’ve provided all requested information and then either scan and email, or post your completed forms and documents back to us:

• Email: claims@mediasuper.com.au
• Post: Media Super Insurance, Locked Bah 5056, Parramatta, NSW 2124

For any questions about claim forms or the information you need to provide, contact Media Super on 1300 722 152 and ask to be transferred to the Claims team.

If the member held insurance cover with Media Super when they died, the insurer will assess your claim according to the insurance policy, when all the requested documents are received.

The insurer will inform Media Super of its decision to accept or decline the claim.

Media Super will then determine which of the member’s potential beneficiaries to pay the death payment to, in accordance with super laws and the Trust Deed, and taking into account the member’s wishes.

If you’re the only potential beneficiary and your claim is straightforward, we’ll be able to let you know as soon as the claim has been assessed. Otherwise, we’ll write to all potential beneficiaries to let them know who we’ve proposed should receive the death payment.

You (along with any other potential beneficiaries) have up to 28 days from when you receive our letter or email to tell us whether:

• you’re satisfied with the decision, or
• you object to it and would like a review.

If you’re happy with our decision you don’t have to respond, but you won’t be able to change your mind later.

We’ll process the claim as advised after 28 days if no objections are received. However we may proceed with processing the claim sooner if all parties respond to let us know they agree with our decision.

If objections are received, we may ask you for more information to help with our review. We must have reasonable grounds to change our decision and we’ll write to all applicants again if we do.

If you’re not satisfied with our decision or how we’ve handled your claim, you can lodge a complaint or contact us.

Generally, payment of the claim can’t be finalised until all objections have been resolved.

If Media Super confirms a payment will be made to you, we’ll write to you to let you know the next steps (by post or email).

This letter will explain your payment options, and will let you know if any other documents or forms are required, such as your ID documents.