If the trust deed for a super fund so permits, a Binding Death
Benefit Nomination (BDBN) can be signed by a
member to direct the trustee of their super fund to pay that
member's death benefits after the death of the member. This
area of superannuation can be confusing to readers as commentators
sometimes loosely speak of "dependants" who are eligible
to receive a member's death benefits in 2 entirely different
contexts.
Under the SIS Act and its regulations a member's death
benefits can only be paid to a "dependant" as defined in
section 10 of the SIS Act. Under tax law, certain payments to
"death benefit dependants" are free of tax. But the SIS
Act and the tax law use of the word "dependant" are not
the same - for example while a member's "spouse" is
within both definitions, a member's "former spouse"
is expressly a death benefits dependant for tax purposes but not so
for SIS Act purposes although a former spouse may be within the SIS
Act definition due to an
