It is estimated that 50% of Australian workers have some level of lost Super. That’s a serious amount money!
As of 30th June 2018 there were 6.2 million lost and ATO-held Super accounts valued at $17.5 billion.
Every week we chat with clients who tell us that they’ve lost track of a chunk of their Super. Each new job has a different superannuation provider and as the years go by it’s easy to end up with a fairly long trail of Super accounts.
The problem with this – aside from simply not knowing where your hard earned money is – insurances and admin fees within those policies slowly eat away at the funds. Also, once you leave a company your account could move to a personal division of that fund, where premiums increase without you knowing. Again, this eats away at even more of your cash.
Unfortunately, when it comes to actually tracking down all this lost Super, it’s hard to know where to start.
39% of Australian’s have more that one Super account. The good news is, it’s not as hard as it seems to re-trace your lost super once you know how.
Does this sound familiar? If so, let’s get your lost Super back under your control
How to find lost super
There are two ways to find and reclaim lost Super:
- Through the Australian Tax Office – You’ll need to create a MyGov account to start your search. A super fund will report you as a lost member to the ATO if:
- it has not been able to contact you
- no contributions or rollover amounts were made in the last five years
- your account was transferred from another fund as a lost member account and no new address has been found.
- Through AUSfund – “AUSfund is a special type of superannuation fund known as Eligible Rollover Fund (ERF). Its purpose is to look after money transferred from other regulated superannuation funds because a member has become ‘lost’ or ‘inactive’. More than 35 super funds transfer their members’ inactive and unclaimed accounts to AUSfund. Your account can become inactive or unclaimed if:
- a super fund that you have an account with has lost contact with you because you changed your address or your name and you did not notify them, or
- you did not nominate where you wanted your super benefit to go after leaving an employer, or
- you have received a portion of a former spouse’s super following a divorce settlement.”
I want to transfer unclaimed super to my current account
Once you find lost Super, it’s usually quite straight forward to transfer it to your current fund from AUSfund just download, fill in and submit the Transfer Out Application Form to transfer the funds into your current account. Visit https://www.ato.gov.au/Forms/Searching-for-lost-super/ for more information on eligibility and claiming lost Super.
While you might think it’s easier just to leave it where it is, remember that all Super funds (even industry ones) charge some sort of administration fees. There is no point paying these fees twice (or more) when the process for transferring your funds is so easy!
Got any questions? Want to know more about how you can make more money with your super? Feel free to email us on [email protected] or leave us a message on our Facebook page where we’ll be happy to help!
