Unfortunately many Australians lose track of their superannuation accounts because they don’t treat them as seriously as bank savings.
When they change their name, change their job and their address, they forget to tell the super fund that there has been a change of circumstances and unfortunately that means that there are a lot of people who have lost contact with their superannuation savings.
What it means is that people need to be giving more information to the superannuation funds and make sure that they’re tracking where that money is ..
An account is considered lost if its been inactive for two years or if mail sent out by the super fund is twice returned unanswered. There are plenty of people happy to let their super remain anonymous and dormant, but on the whole the lost accounts belong to a certain type of Australian – highly mobile and in and out of jobs.
Most of the accounts on the register are for people in the age bracket of 25 to 44, and in the main it’s people who’ve been in the workforce since 1992 when super guarantee was introduced.
Lost superannuation has “blown out” from $8.2 billion in 2004-05 to $9.7 billion in 2005-06; a $1.5 billion increase in one year, says the Minister for superannuation, Senator Nick Sherry. The number of lost accounts also increased from 5.4 million to 5.7 million over the same period. One in two adult working australians now has a lost super account.
– excerpt from SMH article “Lost nest eggs close in on $10 billion”
The incoming Rudd Labor Federal Government has announced that they will introduce a system where lost super accounts would be transferred to one central account and filed according to tax file number.
Whenever the Australian Taxation Office receives notification of a current super account, the lost balance would automatically be transferred to it. This should help to transfer some of the billions of lost super to rightful owners.
AUSfund wants to help you find lost superannuation accounts and return these to your active superannuation account and it does so by providing a FREE service to find any lost super that’s waiting for you to claim.
The Ausfund Member Search Service has been created to help you get in touch with your lost superannuation. The Member Search Service checks your details against the 1.3 million records in the AUSfund data base.
There is no charge to use the Member Search Service and you will only be contacted by Ausfund if you send them a AUSfund Enquiry Form. You should never pay anyone to find your lost superannuation money!!
The next step is to use the ATO’s FREE Super Seeker Service which will search other databases of lost super accounts.
-excerpt from moneymanager.smh.com.au article “Lost super chewed up in fees”
-excerpt from smh.com.au article “Super collectors lose out”
It isn’t good. When you’re young and mobile, you change jobs and address quite often. I must have signed 100 new membership forms for super when I worked in the construction industry. Thus far I have found $630.00
Someone has it!
EDITOR: David, make sure you find out whether Ausfund is holding any of your lost super and then also use the ATO’s FREE Super Seeker Service
You may be pleasantly surprised 🙂
– excerpt from news.com.au article “Super surprise”
For more information visit the NSW Office of State Revenue website
– excerpt from the article “A few issues with Simplifying Super regime” by Superannuation Australia
– excerpt from financialstandard.com.au article “All is not lost”
I use Hesta Superannuation, who helped me find my lost super on my behalf. I reckon it’s worth asking your super fund for help – it’s in their interests to do so, especially if you’re going to rollover your super into their fund.
need to find my super as i have lost track and had many jobs.
The real issue with lost super falls squarely on super funds and eligible roll over funds not to disclose basic details on the web so that you can at least establish an existence of an account that matches your TFN.All super funds should have on their web site a simple search facility like the Ausfund page.
Ausfund fall short – For the best results you should search the 5 major ERF’s and the two major administrators.
What happens to your super if you move overseas? Apparently you have to wait till you’re 60/65 to get at it as there’s no way Ausfund can release it to a non-superfund account, like my regular checking account for example.
If the govt/Ausfund are so keen to reunite people with their superfunds, why is there absolutely no provision for those that may have lost it and moved away from Australia?
Any answers, I’m *all* ears, I have a small yet ‘significant’ amount stuck in Ausfund but I no longer live in the country and I’m not an Aussie citizen either 🙁
Cheers 🙂
@ Russ
I heard that if you’re leaving Australia for good, you can withdraw you super provided that you prove that you’re no longer coming back & don’t have ties here either. I think they will consider case by case basis. Good luck!!
really appreciate the information given here. it has been very helpful for me specially because i am changing my address but wouldn’t have cared to let the super fund know if i have hadn’t read this article.
At the moment I think it still depends on which fund you are with as to where your “lost super” ends up? Many Industry Super Funds such as MTAA Super use Ausfund as their ERF.
Not sure which Super Funds I am with I know 2 of them are Tower , Amp,
over the years i have travelled have changed my name and now family illness has stop me working. I only no of one superfund I’m in and thats Australiansuper. before changing my name it was cherie leanne Armstrong. If possible would like help in finding all my superfund thankyou charlie vale.
Excuse my ignorance, but what is an ERF????
Are there groups who will search for you for not only lost but all funds you have ever had. I have had over 30 jobs in my life and the search in ATO only come in with 2 and i only remember 3 others. Need a firm that searches on my behalf with all funds. dont mind having to pay
i want to reclam all my super so i can roll it over to one
Teach your kids to use they same super fund account every time they change jobs. I was stupid and let each employer put it into their default one (lazy me). Must of lost thousands in multiple super fund accounts from fees and the rest.