Family Law (Superannuation) (Provision of Information - Military Superannuation and Benefits Scheme) Determination 2004

The Determination rests on a small set of recurring concepts that determine its operation and compliance tasks. Those concepts are defined or invoked in the instrument and determine what is to be supplied:

• MSBS. The Determination applies only to the Military Superannuation and Benefits Scheme established by the Trust Deed under the Military Superannuation and Benefits Act 1991 (s 3(1), definition of MSBS). The trustee referred to throughout is the trustee of the MSBS.

• Methods and Factors Approval. The Determination is expressly tied to methods and factors approved under Part 4 of Schedule 1 to the Family Law (Superannuation) (Methods and Factors for Valuing Particular Superannuation Interests) Approval 2003 (the Methods and Factors Approval) (s 3(1) and s 4). The tables and factor names (for example EB, FEB, FDB, UDB, MB, P) in the Determination are references to numbered items and factor definitions that sit in that Approval’s Part 4, Schedule 1.

• Growth phase and payment phase tables. The instrument divides interests by whether they are in the growth phase or the payment phase, mirroring the tables in Part 4 of Schedule 1 to the Methods and Factors Approval. For each listed interest type (items 1-3 in the growth phase table, items 1-2 in the payment phase table) the Determination prescribes the narrow set of information the trustee must supply and the specific information the trustee is exempt from supplying under the Regulations (ss 5-6 and the tables).

• Factor definitions and the "person who has the interest". Rather than requiring the trustee to supply the fuller lists of items set out in the Regulations, the Determination requires the trustee to supply particular definitions or factor information as defined in the Methods and Factors Approval (for example, the definitions of FDB, UDB, MB, EB, FEB, P), and specified attributes of the member such as date of birth, officer status (as defined by subsection 4(1) of the Defence Act 1903), eligible service periods (as defined in the Rules), type of pension and pension amounts for eligible children (ss 3(1), 5, 6).

• Role of “relevant date/appropriate date”. Clause 3(2) modifies how a "relevant date" reference within the Methods and Factors Approval is to be read for the purposes of this Determination: read as "appropriate date". This change affects how factors that include a timing reference are to be interpreted for MSBS interests (s 3(2)).

• Interaction with the Regulations’ specific paragraphs. The Determination repeatedly ties its effect to particular paragraphs of the Regulations: for growth phase it modifies paragraph 64(7)(a) and (b) (s 5); for payment phase it modifies ss 63(6B)(a) and 64(7B)(a) and their corresponding (b) subsections (s 6). Those Regulation paragraphs are the legal hooks by which the family law disclosure regime would otherwise compel a trustee to produce specified items; the Determination replaces the default specified items with the limited list in its own tables.

These concepts together mean the Determination does not create new valuation methodology; it prescribes which contents of the family law disclosure regime apply to MSBS interests and, where there is substitution, which specific factor definitions and member data must be provided. The trustee’s task under the Determination is therefore a mapping exercise: identify the member’s interest against the relevant item in the growth or payment phase table, then produce the prescribed factor definitions and member attributes and withhold the excluded Regulation items specified in the relevant table row (ss 4-6).

The Determination affects a narrow set of parties by name and effect.

• Trustee of the MSBS. The primary addressee is the trustee of the Military Superannuation and Benefits Scheme. The instrument imposes positive disclosure duties and carved‑out non‑obligations on that trustee. Sections 5 and 6 repeatedly specify what the trustee must and need not provide in response to requests under the Regulations. Therefore the trustee pays the direct compliance cost of assembling and disclosing the specified information and benefits from the narrowed set of disclosure obligations relative to the full text of the Regulations.

• Persons who have an MSBS superannuation interest. The Determination applies to "a superannuation interest in the MSBS for which a method and factors have been approved under Part 4 of Schedule 1 to the Methods and Factors Approval" (s 4). That phrase identifies the class of member interests captured. Those members do not themselves receive new rights under the Determination; rather the information disclosed about their interest to other parties in family law proceedings will be limited to the specified factor definitions and personal attributes the trustee must provide.

• Requesting parties in family law proceedings (parties to property/settlement proceedings). The Determination operates by modifying the content of what the MSBS trustee must supply under the Regulations. Consequently, litigants, their advisers and the court receive a narrowed dataset for MSBS interests: certain items that the Regulations would otherwise require are not to be provided by the trustee (see s 5, column 3 entries; s 6, column 3 entries), and in their place the trustee must provide specific factor definitions and member data (s 5, column 4; s 6, column 4). Those requesting parties therefore face reduced availability of certain raw or detailed data and an increased reliance on the factor definitions and member attributes that the Determination mandates.

• Courts, valuers and expert witnesses engaged in family law matters. Those professionals will need to work with the specific factor outputs and member data mandated by the Determination (for example, definitions and values of FDB, UDB, MB, EB, FEB, P; member’s date of birth; officer status; eligible service periods; pension type and child pension amounts) in place of the broader set of information the Regulations might otherwise have produced. Their valuation work and reports will need to reflect the precise data available under the Determination.

• Administrators of the Methods and Factors Approval, and regulators responsible for the Regulations. While not directly altered by the Determination, these bodies are relevant because the Determination cross‑refers to their instruments and the Determination’s scope depends on the existence of a method and factors approved under Part 4, Schedule 1 of the Methods and Factors Approval (s 4). Any change to those approvals or the Regulations would affect the Determination’s practical reach.

Unstated but implied affected activities:

• Recordkeeping and data extraction. The trustee must be able to extract the required factor definitions and member attributes from scheme records, the Rules and the Trust Deed, to produce the outputs the Determination mandates. That may require internal coordination between trustee legal, actuarial and administration teams.

• Privacy and use of personal data. The Determination requires the trustee to provide personal data (for example, date of birth; whether the person was/is an officer; eligible service periods; pension type and amounts for eligible children). Those data flows affect the person who has the interest and anyone relying on that information in proceedings. The instrument itself does not set privacy safeguards; it prescribes the disclosure outputs.

The Determination therefore reallocates compliance costs onto the MSBS trustee and reallocates informational access among parties to family law proceedings and their experts, by narrowing and specifying the set of disclosures trustees must produce for MSBS interests (ss 4-6).

The Determination modifies disclosure duties under the Family Law (Superannuation) Regulations 2001 for MSBS interests by specifying, per item, what a trustee must provide and what it is not required to provide. The key duties and rights are as follows:

Trustee duties

• Duty not to provide specified items. For each listed growth phase and payment phase item the Determination says the trustee is not required to provide certain items otherwise mentioned in specified paragraphs of the Regulations (s 5(a); s 6(a)). For growth phase item 1 the trustee need not provide the items mentioned in paragraphs 64(4A)(a) to (c) of the Regulations. For growth phase items 2 and 3 the trustee need not provide the information mentioned in paragraphs 64(4)(a) to (i) of the Regulations. For payment phase item 1 the trustee need not provide the information in paragraphs 63(3)(b) and 64(3)(b) of the Regulations. For payment phase item 2 the trustee need not provide the information in subparagraphs 63(3)(b)(ii)-(v) and 64(3)(b)(ii)-(v) of the Regulations (ss 5-6, column 3).

• Duty to provide specified factor definitions and member attributes. In each case where the trustee is not required to provide the broader Regulation items, the Determination imposes a positive duty to provide specific factor definitions from the Methods and Factors Approval and particular attributes of the person who has the interest (ss 5-6, column 4). Examples:

  • For growth phase item 1, the trustee must provide the information mentioned in the definitions of FDB, UDB and MB in item 1 of the growth phase table and must provide the member’s date of birth and whether the member was an officer immediately before preserved benefit applicability (s 5, item 1, column 4).
  • For growth phase item 2, the trustee must provide the information mentioned in the definitions of EB, FEB, FDB, UDB and MB in item 2 of the growth phase table and must provide the member’s date of birth, officer status, and the period(s) of the member’s eligible service (s 5, item 2, column 4).
  • For payment phase item 1, the trustee must provide the information in the definition of P in item 1 of the payment phase table and the member’s date of birth, pension type and annual pension amount(s) payable in respect of eligible children (s 6, item 1, column 4).

• Applicability limited to approved methods and factors. The Determination’s duties apply only where a method and factors have been approved for the MSBS interest under Part 4 of Schedule 1 to the Methods and Factors Approval (s 4). If an interest lacks such an approval, the Determination’s prescribed duties will not apply.

Rights and entitlements of requesting parties and members

• Requesting parties’ entitlement to the specified factor and member data. Where the Determination applies, parties requesting information under the Regulations are entitled to receive the specific factor definitions and member attributes listed in column 4 of the relevant table row (ss 5-6). They are not entitled, from the trustee, to receive the broader items listed in the Regulations paragraphs that the Determination disapplies (ss 5-6, column 3).

• Member’s position. The Determination does not create an express private right or restriction in favour of the member in its text beyond the specified requirement that the trustee provide certain personal attributes. The Determination does not assert that the member can refuse disclosure; it simply prescribes what the trustee must provide (ss 5-6).

Scope and limits

• Temporal point: “relevant date” read as “appropriate date”. Clause 3(2) alters how dates appearing in the Methods and Factors Approval factors are to be read for the purposes of the Determination, substituting “appropriate date” for “relevant date”. That affects the temporal point at which factor definitions are to be applied (s 3(2)).

• Definitions imported from external instruments. The Determination relies on definitions in other instruments for key terms: “eligible service” is as given by Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Rules; “officer” has the meaning in subsection 4(1) of the Defence Act 1903; the factor names refer to definitions in the Methods and Factors Approval (s 3(1)). Therefore, the trustee’s duties necessarily require reference to those instruments to assemble the mandated information.

The Determination therefore establishes a set of specific, limited disclosure obligations for the MSBS trustee, displacing broader Regulation obligations in the listed cases and replacing them with a narrower list of factor definitions and member attributes the trustee must provide (ss 3-6). It does not in itself grant rights beyond the entitlement to receive the specified information under the family law disclosure regime as modified.

The Determination itself does not spell out penalties, fines or enforcement mechanisms in its text. It operates by modifying the trustee’s obligations under specified paragraphs of the Family Law (Superannuation) Regulations 2001 (ss 5-6). As a result the enforcement and penalty structure that would apply to non‑compliance is not set out in the Determination but remains tied to the enforcement regime that governs the Regulations, and to any enforcement measures that apply to trustees in their capacity under the MSBS Trust Deed and related legislation.

What the Determination does indicate about enforcement mechanics:

• Modification of statutory duties. The Determination uses the delegated power in subregulations 63(6B), 64(7) and 64(7B) of the Regulations (s 2A) to specify what information a trustee is not required to provide and what it must provide in those circumstances (ss 5-6). Because the Determination operates by changing the text of what the Regulations require in MSBS cases, compliance or non‑compliance would be measured against the Determination’s prescriptions and the Regulations as modified by it.

• No new enforcement provisions inserted. There are no provisions in the Determination that create criminal offences, civil penalties, specific remedies or enforcement processes. The text contains no reference to sanctions, dispute resolution procedures or timeframes for compliance.

Practical consequences for enforcement and remedies (grounded in instrument structure)

• Measurement against the Determination. In a dispute about whether the trustee has complied with its family law disclosure obligations in respect of an MSBS interest for which a method and factors have been approved under the Methods and Factors Approval, the question will be whether the trustee provided the information required by column 4 and did not provide the specific items listed in column 3, per the relevant items in ss 5-6. Any enforcement action would need to be brought under the family law framework that governs enforcement of disclosure duties in the Regulations, with the Determination read as modifying those duties for MSBS interests.

• Risk of disagreement on interpretation of factor definitions. Because the Determination requires the trustee to supply the information mentioned in the definitions of specific factors (for example, EB, FDB, UDB, MB, P, FEB), disputes may arise about what “information mentioned in the definition” entails, and about the temporal point for application (noting s 3(2) on “relevant date” read as “appropriate date”). That interpretive risk creates an enforcement friction point; the Determination does not prescribe a mechanism for resolving such differences in content or timing.

• Trustee’s reliance on external instruments. The trustee must rely on and translate the Methods and Factors Approval, the Rules and the Trust Deed to produce the specified data. If the trustee fails to provide the specified data, any enforcement recourse would be through the family law disclosure and enforcement mechanisms that apply to trustees under the Regulations as modified by the Determination.

In short, the Determination alters what compliance looks like for MSBS trustees but does not itself contain penalties or enforcement instructions. Enforcement questions therefore turn on the family law regulatory framework and on how courts or regulators interpret compliance against the Determination’s narrow disclosure prescriptions (ss 2A, 3-6).

The Determination is explicitly and narrowly interwoven with several other instruments and statutory sources. Its operation depends on and refers to these instruments; it does not restate their substantive content. The relevant interactions are:

• Family Law (Superannuation) Regulations 2001 (the Regulations). The Determination is made under subregulations 63(6B), 64(7) and 64(7B) of the Regulations (s 2A). It modifies what trustees of the MSBS must or need not provide when information is requested under those Regulations. The Determination therefore does not replace the Regulations generally; it carves out and prescribes alternative disclosure requirements for MSBS interests by specifying which paragraphs of the Regulations are not to be applied to the MSBS trustee and what must be provided in their stead (ss 5-6).

• Family Law (Superannuation) (Methods and Factors for Valuing Particular Superannuation Interests) Approval 2003 (the Methods and Factors Approval). The Determination's content repeatedly references and depends on definitions and tables located in Part 4 of Schedule 1 of the Methods and Factors Approval (s 3(1) definitions of "growth phase table", "payment phase table", and "Methods and Factors Approval"; s 4 specifies applicability where a method and factors have been approved under Part 4 of Schedule 1). In practice, the Determination requires trustees to supply the information mentioned in the definitions of factors that appear in those tables (for example EB, FEB, FDB, UDB, MB, P). Therefore the Determination interacts with the Methods and Factors Approval by importing its factor definitions and table structure as the content trustees must supply.

• MSBS Trust Deed, Military Superannuation and Benefits Act 1991 and the Rules. The Determination applies to the MSBS established by the Trust Deed under the Military Superannuation and Benefits Act 1991 (s 3(1) definition of MSBS). It imports the meaning of "Rules" from subsection 3(1) of the Military Superannuation and Benefits Act 1991, and it imports the meaning of "eligible service" from Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Rules (s 3(1) definitions). The Determination therefore requires trustees to refer to the MSBS Rules and Trust Deed to identify eligible service periods and to determine entitlement details (for example, notice in s 5 item 2 and item 3 regarding "period or periods of the person’s eligible service").

• Defence Act 1903. The Determination uses the term "officer" and states that the meaning in subsection 4(1) of the Defence Act 1903 applies (s 3(1) definition of officer). The trustee must therefore determine and report whether the person was or is an officer for the specific times stated in the applicable item (for example, s 5 item 1 requires whether the person was an officer or was not an officer immediately before a preserved benefit became applicable).

• Temporal cross‑reference: “relevant date”/“appropriate date”. Clause 3(2) instructs that where a factor in the Methods and Factors Approval mentions a “relevant date” that expression is to be read as “appropriate date” for the purposes of this Determination. This is a textual interaction that alters how the timing language of the Methods and Factors Approval is applied when supplying factor information for MSBS interests (s 3(2)).

Mechanically, the Determination cannot be read in isolation. To operationalise its requirements the trustee must consult and extract content from:

• the Methods and Factors Approval (to determine which factors are defined in the relevant table item and what those definitions require),
• the MSBS Rules and Trust Deed (to determine eligible service, pension entitlements and amounts), and
• the Defence Act (to determine officer status where required).

Because the Determination disapplies particular paragraphs of the Regulations and substitutes specific factor and member data, its practical effect on family law proceedings derives from the interplay between these instruments. Any change to the Methods and Factors Approval, the Regulations, the Rules, the Trust Deed or the Defence Act definitions that bear on the meaning of the factor definitions or member attributes will change how the Determination operates in practice (ss 2A-6).

The Determination contains minimal material about its own provenance and no in‑text record of subsequent amendments. The instrument itself states its title as the Family Law (Superannuation) (Provision of Information,Military Superannuation and Benefits Scheme) Determination 2004 (s 1). It also records the statutory authority for its making: subregulations 63(6B), 64(7) and 64(7B) of the Family Law (Superannuation) Regulations 2001 (s 2A).

What the instrument explicitly records

• Title and year. The name given in s 1 identifies it as the Determination 2004.

• Enabling provision. Section 2A states the specific subregulations of the Regulations under which it is made.

What it does not record

• There is no schedule of amendments or version history contained within the text supplied. The Determination does not reproduce an enactment date, commencement provision, or any amendment notes within the body of the text you provided. The instrument includes no marginal notes or parent instrument notes indicating amendment events.

Implication for users

• Users must treat the Determination as a stand‑alone instrument titled 2004 and made under the identified Regulations. If a practitioner needs to know whether the Determination has been amended since its making, or whether it has been repealed or superseded, the Determination itself provides no record and the practitioner must consult the consolidated database or statutory register (this instrument does not itself include amendment metadata).

• The Determination’s references to external instruments , in particular the Methods and Factors Approval, the Regulations, the Rules, the Defence Act and the MSBS Trust Deed , mean that changes to any of those instruments could affect the operation or relevance of this Determination. The Determination itself contains no textual mechanism for automatic adaptation to changes in those instruments beyond the textual cross‑references (for example s 3(2) on “relevant date”/“appropriate date” is a one‑off interpretive instruction).

In short, the Determination is presented as the 2004 instrument made under the cited subregulations and containing no in‑text amendment history. To determine any subsequent amendment, repeal, replacement or in force status, users must consult the official legislative database or register, since the Determination text supplied contains no amendment chronology or commencement note (s 1; s 2A).

The Determination text supplied contains no references to court decisions, case law, disputes, appeals, or litigation outcomes. It cites only legislative and delegated instruments (the Regulations, the Methods and Factors Approval, the Military Superannuation and Benefits Act 1991 and its Rules, and the Defence Act 1903) as sources for definitions and authority (s 2A; s 3(1); s 4).

Consequences of that absence

• No cases named. Because the Determination itself does not cite or summarise judicial decisions, there is nothing in the instrument that establishes a litigation history or judicial interpretation record within its text.

• Interpretive risk remains untested. The Determination introduces interpretive points , for example, the instruction that "relevant date" be read as "appropriate date" for factor definitions (s 3(2)), the requirement to supply "the information mentioned in the definition" of certain factors (ss 5-6, column 4), and the questions about whether the trustee must supply underlying actuarial inputs or only the factor definitions. Absent litigation in the instrument, these interpretive points remain matters that may generate disputes in practice if parties disagree about scope or sufficiency of the trustee’s disclosure.

• Enforcement and compliance disputes would be handled in the family law context. Any legal contest about whether the trustee complied with the Determination would likely be litigated under the family law enforcement mechanisms and relevant Rules for disclosure. The Determination does not itself set out the forum or process by which disputes about compliance are to be resolved.

Practical note for practitioners

• If an adviser requires precedent or judicial guidance on how courts have applied this Determination (for example, on what constitutes "the information mentioned in the definition" of a factor), that material is not contained in the Determination text. The adviser must search judicial databases or court records to find any decisions that might have considered the Determination; nothing within this instrument documents such decisions (ss 3-6).

In sum, the supplied Determination contains no litigation history or cited cases; therefore any interpretive or enforcement questions it raises are not elucidated by judicial commentary within the instrument itself.

The Determination is compact, but several practical and interpretive pitfalls arise directly from its text and the way it cross‑refers to other instruments. These are the concrete "gotchas" to watch for, grounded in the instrument:

1. The Determination does not contain the definitions it requires; it imports them. The instrument repeatedly requires the trustee to provide "the information mentioned in the definition of" specified factors appearing in the Methods and Factors Approval tables (for example EB, FEB, FDB, UDB, MB, P) (ss 5-6, column 4). The Determination does not itself give those factor definitions, so the trustee and advisers must consult the Methods and Factors Approval to know precisely what to produce. Failure to pull the correct text from that Approval risks non‑compliance.

2. "Relevant date" is to be read as "appropriate date". Clause 3(2) changes the timing language in factor definitions that refer to a "relevant date". This is a discrete interpretive tweak that may change the temporal point at which values or entitlement status are assessed. If an actuary or trustee uses the wrong date because they default to the Methods and Factors Approval wording, the output may be challenged (s 3(2)).

3. Narrow substitution of information may not satisfy litigant expectations. The Determination disapplies broad lists of Regulation items and substitutes narrowly targeted factor information and limited member attributes. Parties expecting the full panoply of Regulation data (for example, complete benefit statements, historical contributions, detailed actuarial inputs) may be surprised; the trustee is not required to provide those disapplied items where the Determination applies (s 5, column 3; s 6, column 3).

4. Personal data disclosure obligations are explicit and varied. The Determination requires the trustee to provide sensitive personal attributes in several cases: date of birth; whether the person was/were an officer immediately before preserved benefits; officer status; period(s) of eligible service; type of pension; annual amount(s) payable for eligible children (ss 5-6, column 4). Trustees must be prepared to extract and disclose those data points. That requirement interacts with any privacy or confidentiality frameworks the trustee otherwise observes (but the Determination does not itself address privacy compliance).

5. "Officer" and "eligible service" have external statutory meanings. The instrument imports the meaning of "officer" from subsection 4(1) of the Defence Act 1903 and "eligible service" from Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Rules (s 3(1)). Trustees must therefore consult those instruments to apply the terms correctly. Misapplication may flow from reliance on informal understandings of those terms.

6. The form of the information required is specified as "information mentioned in the definition" rather than "numerical values" or "actuarial inputs". This phrasing can be ambiguous in practice. Does it require the trustee to provide the definition text or the outputs that the definition produces? The Determination likely intends the trustee to provide the data elements that the factor definitions would call for, but the phrasing leaves room for differing interpretations by trustees, actuaries, experts and courts (ss 5-6).

7. The Determination applies only where a method and factors have been approved under Part 4 of Schedule 1 to the Methods and Factors Approval (s 4). If no such approval exists for the particular MSBS interest, the Determination's modified disclosure regime does not apply and the trustee’s disclosure obligations will be the default ones in the Regulations. Practitioners must therefore confirm that an approval exists for the specific interest before relying on the Determination’s modified regime.

8. No timing or form requirements. The Determination specifies what must or need not be provided but does not state timeframes, formats or delivery mechanisms. Absent those specifications, parties may disagree on delivery schedules, file formats, or whether the trustee must provide explanations or supporting documentation for the factor values.

9. No express interplay with the Trust Deed obligations. The Determination does not address whether complying with the Determination affects or interacts with trustee obligations under the MSBS Trust Deed. Trustees must therefore reconcile any confidentiality or disclosure constraints in the Trust Deed with their statutory duty under the family law framework as modified by the Determination.

10. Gaps in payment phase vs growth phase items. The Determination addresses three growth phase items and two payment phase items corresponding to the Methods and Factors Approval tables. If a practitioner incorrectly categorises an interest between phases, the trustee might be asked for the wrong set of information. Accurate classification against the Methods and Factors Approval tables is essential (s 4; ss 5-6).

These "gotchas" arise from textual omissions, cross‑references to external instruments, interpretive substitutions (definition text vs outputs), timing language alteration, and the absence of procedural detail. Practitioners must therefore undertake careful cross‑referencing of the Methods and Factors Approval, the Regulations, the Rules and the Defence Act when implementing or advising on disclosure under this Determination.

To comply with the Determination, trustees, advisers and valuers should follow a concise, repeatable process that maps the Determination’s prescriptions to the relevant external instruments. The following stepwise compliance guide is grounded in the Determination’s text (ss 3-6):

1. Confirm applicability (s 4).

   • Determine whether the superannuation interest in question is an MSBS interest.
   • Confirm that a method and factors for that interest have been approved under Part 4 of Schedule 1 to the Methods and Factors Approval. The Determination applies only where such an approval exists (s 4).

2. Classify the interest into growth phase or payment phase and identify the relevant item.

   • Using the Methods and Factors Approval Part 4, locate the growth phase or payment phase table and identify whether the interest matches item 1, 2 or 3 of the growth phase table or item 1 or 2 of the payment phase table. The Determination’s tables in ss 5-6 are keyed to those item numbers.

3. Identify the disapplied Regulation paragraphs (ss 5(a), 6(a)).

   • For the identified item, note which paragraphs of the Regulations the trustee is not required to provide information under (for example, s 5, growth phase item 1 disapplies paragraphs 64(4A)(a)-(c); growth phase items 2 and 3 disapply paragraphs 64(4)(a)-(i); s 6, payment phase item 1 disapplies paragraphs 63(3)(b) and 64(3)(b); s 6, payment phase item 2 disapplies subparagraphs 63(3)(b)(ii)-(v) and 64(3)(b)(ii)-(v)). Recording the disapplied paragraphs will help justify the trustee’s scope of disclosure to requesting parties.

4. Extract the required factor information from the Methods and Factors Approval (ss 5-6, column 4).

   • For the factors listed in the relevant Determination row (for example EB, FEB, FDB, UDB, MB, P), retrieve the full text of the factor definitions and identify the precise information the definitions require by their wording. The Determination requires the trustee to provide "the information mentioned in the definition" of those factors, so capture each data element or output implicated by those definitions.

5. Gather the specified member attributes from MSBS records and the Rules (ss 3(1), 5-6).

   • Collect the personal data the Determination mandates for the relevant item:
     • date of birth (multiple items require this) (ss 5-6);
     • officer status at the specified time(s), applying the Defence Act 1903 definition for "officer" (s 3(1); ss 5-6);
     • period(s) of eligible service, as defined in the Rules (s 3(1); s 5 items 2 and 3);
     • type of pension and annual pension amounts payable in respect of eligible children (s 6, item 1).
   • Ensure the trustee has accurate, auditable records to support these disclosures.

6. Apply the timing instruction for dates (s 3(2)).

   • Where a factor in the Methods and Factors Approval mentions a "relevant date", substitute the wording "appropriate date" for the purposes of preparing the information. Document which date you use and the rationale for choosing that "appropriate date" to avoid disputes.

7. Produce the disclosure package and document compliance (ss 5-6).

   • Assemble a disclosure package that:
     • includes the factor information drawn from the Methods and Factors Approval factor definitions and the specific member attributes required in column 4 of the Determination’s table row;
     • explicitly notes the items of the Regulations that the trustee is not required to provide under the Determination (so the requesting party is aware of the scope limitation);
     • cites the Determination and the relevant item row as the authority for both the supplied information and the omitted Regulation items.
   • Keep an internal compliance file recording how each required data element was obtained, the sources consulted (Methods and Factors Approval, Rules, Trust Deed, Defence Act), the date(s) used under s 3(2), and any internal approvals or legal advice relied upon.

8. Consider privacy and disclosure controls.

   • The Determination mandates disclosure of personal information (date of birth, officer status, periods of eligible service, pension amounts for children). Ensure that the trustee complies with any applicable privacy frameworks, noting that the Determination itself mandates the disclosure but does not specify privacy safeguards. Record the legal basis for disclosure and any redactions or limited distributions consistent with applicable law and the trustee’s obligations.

9. Prepare for queries and potential disputes.

   • Anticipate that requesting parties or their experts may ask for clarifications about how a factor’s "information mentioned in the definition" was produced. Prepare explanatory notes showing how factor values were derived or how definitions were interpreted.
   • Be ready to justify the chosen "appropriate date" per s 3(2), and maintain contemporaneous evidence supporting the date selection.

10. Reassess when external instruments change.

• Because the Determination imports definitions and meanings from the Methods and Factors Approval, the Rules, and the Defence Act, any amendment in those instruments could affect what must be provided. Maintain a monitoring process to identify amendments to those instruments and reassess disclosure practices accordingly (ss 3-4).

Practical checklists for trustees and advisers

• Verify approval status under the Methods and Factors Approval for the particular MSBS interest (s 4).
• Identify the correct item in the growth/payment phase table (ss 5-6).
• Pull the exact factor definitions and extract the data elements called for (ss 5-6).
• Extract member attributes (DOB, officer status, eligible service periods, pension type/amounts for children) from the MSBS records and Rules (s 3(1); ss 5-6).
• Note which Regulation items are disapplied to justify omissions in the disclosure (ss 5-6).
• Document the chosen "appropriate date" and how it maps to the factor definition timing (s 3(2)).
• Retain a compliance file including the Determination citation, factor texts, Rules/Trust Deed references, and internal sign‑offs.

Following the above steps will align a trustee’s practical workflow with the Determination’s narrow disclosure regime and provide an auditable record to support compliance with the Regulation paragraphs as modified by the Determination (ss 2A-6).