Many retirees take their super benefits at retirement by way of a regular income stream called a pension. The main reason for doing so is to meet a retiree's ongoing need for income.

An advantage of an income stream funded from superannuation is that earnings generated within the fund are completely tax free. (Remember that there is a Transfer Balance Cap that restricts the amount of funds held within a pension account, as explained previously). If, instead, you withdrew the money from super and invested it in other investments outside of super, in most cases you would likely pay tax on any earnings at your marginal tax rate.