Superannuation is usually the second largest asset a separating couple has, and in shorter relationships it is often the largest. It is also the part of a property settlement where the published guidance is most likely to be wrong, because three separate reforms took effect inside three years.

It is property, but it is a different kind

Superannuation can be split between separating couples, married or de facto. Splitting it does not turn it into cash. The money stays in the superannuation system and is generally preserved until the receiving person meets a condition of release, usually retirement.

Splitting is also not compulsory. Plenty of settlements leave superannuation where it sits and adjust the rest of the pool instead. Which approach suits you depends on your ages and on what else is in the pool.

You no longer wait twelve months

For years, splitting super by agreement above a certain value required a declaration that the parties had been separated for at least twelve months with no reasonable likelihood of resuming cohabitation. That requirement was tied to a tax concession which stopped being relevant on 1 July 2024.

It was repealed with effect from 11 December 2024. The separation declaration now states that you were married or in a de facto relationship and that you are separated. If you were told to wait a year before dealing with superannuation, that advice has expired.

If you suspect they are hiding it

Since 1 April 2022 a party to property proceedings can apply to the court for the other party's superannuation information held by the Commissioner of Taxation. The request goes through the Commonwealth Courts Portal on the approved form, and a response is usually available within about a week.

Two warnings come with it. The Tax Office data can lag, so treat it as a way of finding accounts rather than a current balance, and take the balance itself from the fund. The information may also only be used for the proceeding it was obtained for.

One more change is still misreported: de facto couples in Western Australia could not split superannuation until September 2022, and now they can. Any page saying otherwise was written before that date.

Old valuations may need redoing

The regulations that govern how a superannuation interest is valued were replaced on 1 April 2025, along with the ministerial instrument that sets the approved methods and factors. The government's position is that the values produced will not change, and a transition factor was approved to avoid unintended consequences for agreements and orders made before that date.

In practice, if you hold a defined benefit valuation obtained before April 2025 and your matter is still running, have it checked rather than assumed. Defined benefit interests are the ones a spreadsheet gets wrong, and the ones where the number moves the settlement.

None of this is a reason to panic about your own settlement. It is a reason to check the date on anything you are relying on.