How Superannuation Is Valued for a Property Settlement

Ask most people what their superannuation is worth and they will read you the number off the app. That number is often not the number family law uses. For an ordinary accumulation account the two usually match, so nothing turns on it. For a defined benefit interest, a pension, or one of the hybrid arrangements sitting in between, the family law value is calculated using a method set out in the Family Law (Superannuation) Regulations, and it can land a long way from the figure on the statement.

That gap is not a technicality. It decides how big the pool is before anyone starts arguing about percentages.

A member statement tells the member what their account is worth at a point in time, for their own purposes. Family law asks something else entirely: what is this interest worth, right now, for the purpose of dividing property between two people who are separating?

With a plain accumulation interest, those two questions land in the same place. The fund can tell you the withdrawal benefit, which is what would be payable if the member walked out of the fund today. That figure already has exit fees and insurance premiums taken off, which is why it sometimes sits a little under the headline number glowing on the app dashboard.

Anything that is not pure accumulation is where it gets interesting. A defined benefit interest is not a pot of money with the member's name on it. It is a promise to pay a benefit worked out from salary, service and a multiple. If the fund displays a "balance" at all, it may be an accumulated contributions figure that has very little to do with what that promise is actually worth. A long serving Queensland public servant can be sitting on a defined benefit interest worth substantially more than any balance they have ever laid eyes on. Worth knowing before you agree to a percentage. We go through the mechanics of those schemes on defined benefit superannuation and separation.

The official value comes from the trustee of the fund, and you get it by using the Superannuation Information Request forms made under the Family Law (Superannuation) Regulations. In practice that means a Form 6 Declaration together with the applicable Superannuation Information Form, posted to the fund with the prescribed fee if that fund charges one.

The current forms and instructions live in the Superannuation Information Kit published by the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia. The Family Law (Superannuation) Regulations 2025 (Cth) set out what a trustee has to give you and which valuation methods apply.

Three things people consistently get wrong about this process:

1. You do not need your former partner's consent. An eligible person, which includes a spouse or de facto partner, applies to the trustee directly.
2. You do need the fund name and member number, or enough detail for the trustee to work out which interest you mean. If you have none of that, you have a different job on your hands first: see how to find out what superannuation your former partner has.
3. The trustee must not disclose the member's address to the applicant, or the applicant's address to the member. That protection matters where safety is a concern.

What comes back contains the information the regulations require. For a defined benefit interest, that usually means the inputs you need to run the formula rather than one tidy dollar figure at the bottom of a page.

The method follows the type of interest. Accumulation accounts use the trustee's withdrawal benefit. Defined benefit, pension and self managed interests each have their own path, set out below.

Self-managed funds earn their own warning. A member balance is only ever as reliable as the asset values sitting behind it. If the fund holds a Sunshine Coast investment property carried at a figure someone picked several years ago, or units in an unlisted entity, or a loan to a related party, the reported member balance may bear no resemblance to what those underlying assets are worth today. The market valuation of the asset comes first, and sometimes an accountant needs to work through the fund financials, before anyone attempts a family law valuation. There is more on this at splitting a self managed super fund when a relationship ends.

Bring in an actuary when the interest is a defined benefit or something similar, and the value is big enough that getting it wrong would reshape the settlement, or where the parties cannot agree on the assumptions.

The triggers to watch for:

• The interest sits in a public sector or corporate defined benefit scheme and the member has long service behind them.
• The member is close to a preservation or retirement threshold, where nudging the assumed retirement age moves the value.
• A pension is already in payment with reversionary or indexation features attached.
• The scheme is closed to new members and carries unusual terms the standard methods do not handle neatly.

An actuary who works in family law valuations applies the prescribed method and produces a report you can put before the court or attach to negotiations. Weigh that cost against what is actually in dispute. For a modest defined benefit interest, the fund's own figures and some careful reading may get you there. For a career public servant's interest, the distance between a reasonable value and an unreasonable one can make the fee look trivial.

Yes, it changes, and this is where people get caught. Property in Australian family law is generally assessed at the date of the hearing or the agreement, not the date you separated. A super interest that has grown since you split is valued at the later figure.

Two things follow from that. A valuation you obtained early in the negotiation goes stale. If your matter has been running for a year, plan on refreshing it before you sign anything, and expect the other side to insist on it. The second consequence is subtler. In a falling market, the party pushing for a percentage split of super is taking a different risk position to the party pushing for a base amount. A percentage split moves with the value of the splittable payment. A base-amount split starts with a specified dollar amount, but that amount is generally adjusted under the statutory interest method until the payment split is implemented under the superannuation splitting order. The two approaches hand out investment and timing risk in different proportions. Which is why the structure of a super split matters every bit as much as the total value.

A simplified hypothetical makes the point. Say a defined benefit interest is valued at $400,000 while orders are being prepared, and the parties agree the non-member spouse takes 40 per cent. Under a percentage-based splitting order, that entitlement travels with the fund: if the value climbs to $440,000 by the time the split is implemented, they receive 40 per cent of the higher figure. Under a base-amount order, the parties instead fix a dollar figure, say $160,000, at the operative time. That base amount is not frozen either. It is adjusted between the operative time and the payment split under the statutory interest method described above, broadly tracking a prescribed adjustment rate rather than whatever the fund actually earned. In a strong year for the fund, the non-member spouse on a base amount can finish with less than a percentage split would have delivered. In a weak year, the reverse. Which approach suits a particular matter comes down to the interest type, the market outlook and how much of that risk each party can stomach.

Have this conversation before drafting. Choosing the right form of order is far easier than repairing the wrong one afterwards. The same logic runs through how superannuation is split after separation in Queensland.

The valued super interest goes into the asset pool at step one, sitting alongside the house, the savings, the vehicles and the liabilities. From there it is subject to the same contributions and future needs assessment as everything else. Courts frequently deal with super in a separate pool rather than lumping it in with the cash assets, because a dollar of super is not a dollar in a bank account.

That is the practical heart of it. Super is preserved. A 45 year old who takes an extra share of super instead of cash has taken an asset they cannot touch for two decades, while the other party leaves with money that pays the rent next month. A defensible valuation is half the job. What you do with the number is the other half, and it interacts with tax: see superannuation split tax implications and our walkthrough of the four step process for property settlement.

Once the figure is agreed, it still has to be formalised, whether by consent orders, a court order made after a hearing, or a superannuation agreement inside a binding financial agreement. The difference between a binding financial agreement and consent orders sets out how those options compare.

This page gives general legal information. It is not financial or tax advice. A defined benefit interest, a self managed fund or a pension may need input from an actuary, a financial adviser or an accountant as well as a family lawyer. Working out that you need that help before the orders are drafted, rather than after, is what keeps you out of an unsuitable settlement structure. Nothing here replaces independent legal advice for your own circumstances.

Is the superannuation balance on MyGov good enough for a property settlement? No. MyGov and ATO records are useful for identifying that an interest exists and which fund holds it, but they are not a family law valuation. For an accumulation account you still want the trustee's withdrawal benefit figure, and for anything else the ATO figure can be misleading.

Who pays for the superannuation valuation? The party requesting the information usually pays the trustee's fee for the Superannuation Information Request, and the cost of an actuarial report is negotiable between the parties or can be dealt with in orders. Trustee fees vary between funds.

Can superannuation be left out of a property settlement? Superannuation does not have to form part of a property settlement, but the decision to include superannuation should be deliberate, not an oversight. Superannuation is frequently the second largest asset after the family home, and settlements that ignore it often produce a result one party regrets once the size of the interest becomes clear.

Does the same valuation approach apply to de facto couples? Yes. Superannuation splitting is available to couples ending a marriage or de facto relationship across Australia under the Family Law Act, subject to jurisdictional requirements, and the valuation rules are the same. See de facto relationship break up entitlements.

How long is a superannuation valuation valid? There is no fixed expiry date. Whether the figure should be refreshed depends on the type of interest, market movement, contributions and the time remaining before orders are finalised. Your lawyer can advise whether an updated trustee response or valuation is needed.

Does getting a valuation stop the member from withdrawing the money? No. A valuation is information only. If you are concerned that a benefit may become payable and be paid out before your matter resolves, the tool for that is a flagging order: see superannuation flagging orders.

Queensland Family Law Practice advises separating couples on property settlements involving superannuation. Our family lawyers assist clients from our Kelvin Grove and Birtinya offices. If your matter involves a defined benefit interest, a self managed fund, or a super balance you suspect is larger than it looks, get the valuation right before property settlement proceedings progress. Not after.

Call (07) 3172 3777, email enquiries@qflp.com.au, or book your consultation. You can also read our guide to dividing assets and property settlement to see where superannuation fits in the wider picture.