Meet the team behind AMP's new offering to supercharge your super, Lifetime Boost

AMP Super’s Lifetime solutions were created by a team of experts determined to make retirement better. One of our solutions, the Lifetime Boost feature works in the background of your AMP Super account with no extra fees or effort and for the average Aussie it could mean $100,000 better off in your first 10 years of retirement¹. We spoke to the people behind it to find out what inspired its creation, how the innovation came to life, and how it is can help members feel more confident about their future.

Who’s behind Lifetime Boost?

The award-winning feature was built by a team of number-crunchers and innovators passionate about making super simpler and more useful: 

• Estelle Liu, Head of Retirement Solutions: “We tested 24 different member scenarios and found the benefit held true across most Australians, not just the ‘average case’.”

• Ivan Beocanin, Product Manager: “With the Retirement Simulator, you can literally tick a box and see what Lifetime Boost means for your retirement outcome.”

• Julie Slapp, Director Growth & Customer Solutions: “Having even a little extra money can mean the difference between dignity in retirement and scraping by. Every retiree deserves that confidence.”

• Brooke Veenstra, Product Manager: “I think of my dad, who has kept working past retirement age because he didn’t want to draw down his super. If he’d had Lifetime Boost, it would have given him the confidence to stop working and enjoy retirement.”

• Martin Porter, Senior Product Lead: “Switching on Lifetime Boost feature is like having an accountant in the background doing the hard work, so you can just enjoy the benefits of a boosted retirement income.”

Q: Can you explain what Lifetime Boost is in a nutshell?

Julie: Lifetime Boost is a feature built into your AMP Super account to help you get more income in retirement with an AMP Lifetime Pension – a pension for life. It works in the background for you, and you get more options when you choose to retire.

Estelle: Lifetime Boost is an example of our Lifetime solutions which are not only here to address longevity risk for our customers, but also their fear of running out of money in retirement. With a pension that lasts their lifetime, they can feel more confident to actually spend their money in retirement.

Q: Why did AMP Super create Lifetime Boost?

Brooke: Retirement looks different for everyone, but we kept seeing the same problem: people save their whole lives then barely touch their super because they’re scared it’ll run out. Lifetime solutions can help bridge that gap. And with the Government’s Retirement Income Covenant pushing super funds to help people spend with confidence, not just grow a balance, AMP Super developed Lifetime Boost to further boost up the benefit of an AMP Lifetime Pension.

Q: So, how does Lifetime Boost actually work?

Martin: Think of Lifetime Boost as a bonus feature inside your super. It doesn’t cost extra, and you’re not locked in, so you don’t lose flexibility, and there’s nothing complicated to do. You’re basically preparing a better pension for your future self, so when you retire, one’s already been developing quietly in the background if you want that option.

Here’s what that means in practice:

• It sits in your super account while you’re still working.

• At retirement, you can choose to use it by converting into a lifetime pension alongside your account-based pension (like an AMP Allocated Pension).

• It taps into government concessions, and increases the discount on assets tested for the Age Pension from 40% to as much as 100%.

Q: AMP Super says that Lifetime Boost could add $100k to the first ten years of my retirement². How is that even possible?

Estelle: That uplift comes from three sources. First, higher income rate when you retire – a lifetime pension converts retirement savings into higher income efficiently backed by insured living bonus to ensure income never runs out. The second uplift comes from Government Age Pension concessions. For example, there’s a 40% discount for asset tests for any allocation into a lifetime pension. The concessions are boosted up the earlier you switched on Lifetime Boost feature in your AMP Super account. That means your super could unlock more pension benefits. And finally, confidence to spend more freely, knowing you can enjoy a guaranteed income for life.

Q: Why is Lifetime Boost considered an innovation?

Julie: Because no one else has done it at this scale. AMP was first to embed the feature directly into members’ super accounts, so everyday Australians, not just people with advisers, could benefit. Our trustee found that nine out of 10 members would be better off with Lifetime Boost and no one would be worse off³. When we won the Chant West Innovation Award, which is one of the most respected ratings houses in the industry, it validated that this is genuinely groundbreaking. It’s not innovation for innovation’s sake; it’s about putting real money back into members’ hands.

Q: But what’s the catch?

Estelle: We get asked this all the time! The truth is, there isn’t one. Switching on Lifetime Boost as early as possible will give you the maximum potential upside, with no extra fees and it doesn’t lock you in. If you decide down the track that an AMP Lifetime Pension is not for you and you do not want to use the option to convert into one in retirement, then what you get in retirement would be no different to if you have never switched on Lifetime Boost.

Julie: It’s a fair question! But the reality is, the Government want people to use their super as income, not just sitting on it in fear of running out. Lifetime Boost gives members the confidence to actually spend and enjoy retirement, especially in those earlier years

Q: What if I don’t understand all the rules and numbers?

Ivan: That’s where the Retirement Simulator comes in. It’s a free online tool where you pop in your own details - income, super, assets - and it shows you what retirement could look like. There is a toggle which you can turn on and off to instantly see the difference lifetime solutions can make. It’s designed to be simple, visual, and holistic looking at all your assets; super, Age Pension eligibility, and income streams.