Australians are being urged to find any lingering superannuation money

Many Australians have duplicate superannuation accounts and they are wasting money on multiple fees and charges. This is how you can get your money back.

About two in five Australians hold multiple superannuation accounts and probably don’t even realise it.

Many of us receive a handful of super statements from various funds every year but choose to do absolutely nothing about it.

And despite it taking just a few minutes to roll a handful of accounts into one, many super members’ accounts are dwindling away thanks to paying duplicate fees and unnecessary insurance.

Latest Australian Taxation Office data found the following:

• 61 per cent of people hold 1 super account.

• 25 per cent hold 2 super accounts.

• 9 per cent hold 3 super accounts.

• 3 per cent hold 4 super accounts.

• 1 per cent hold 5 per cent account.

• 1 per cent hold 6 or more super accounts.

MORE: The great superannuation rort exposed that could be catching you out

But many inactive super accounts — when your account balance is under $6,000, has no insurance and has not had certain types of activity in the past 16 months — will see your balance will be transferred to the ATO from July 1.

The ATO will then consolidate these amounts into an eligible active super account a member has, a move that should help mop up the issues of Australians having too many accounts.

Mother-of-two Zenobia Lawler, 35, who works as a nurse, took action to consolidate four super accounts into one.

Pregnant mother-of-two Zenobia Lawler, 35, in the last couple of years consolidated about four superannuation accounts so all her money was rolled into the one account. Picture: Tony Gough

She was constantly receiving snail mail from multiple funds she had joined over the years and figured her money was better off sitting in the one bucket.

“I kept getting letters from funds telling me what my super balance was even after I was no longer using that particular fund anymore,” Ms Lawler said.

“I did it online, I just had to punch in a few details and it was done, I consolidated in total about $2000 to $3000.”

Australians often end up with duplicate super accounts when they switch jobs because they open up a new account each time — often a default fund recommended by their employer.

This can leave employees with a trail of accounts with different funds.

But thankfully Australians are getting better at claiming their money back.

Latest figures from one of the nation’s largest funds, AustralianSuper which has 2.1 million members, revealed in the past three months 24,000 people have closed 27,000 accounts.

And super fund Hesta’s chief executive officer Debby Blakey said more than 77,000 members had consolidated 100,000 accounts in the past year.

“Once someone’s worked out what accounts they have, it’s important to consider if any of the funds charge exit fees and what insurance is attached to the super accounts before consolidating,” she said.

“To ensure that the consolidation of super best matches what you want, it’s worth looking at getting your super in shape now, particularly if you think you might have a few accounts with small balances.”

The nation’s fourth largest fund, Sunsuper which has 1.4 million members, has had nearly 23,000 members consolidate more than 30,000 accounts in the past three months.

The fund’s manager of comprehensive advice services, Evan Poole, said choosing a strong-performing fund could make a big difference come retirement.

“Understanding and reducing fees is a really important consideration in a members superannuation investments,” he said.

“According to ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) even a 1 per cent difference in fees and returns could mean a $20,000 difference in end benefits for a member.”

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia’s chief executive officer, Dr Martin Fahy, urged all Australians to visit the myGov website which shows all their accounts and roll them into one.

“You should only more than one account if you have very good reason for that which is either insurance or some other reason,” he said.

“We encourage people to save on fees to consolidate their super.”

@sophieelsworth

How to consolidate your super

1. Create a myGov account.

2. Link your myGov account to the ATO within this portal.

3. Click on the ‘super’ tab.

4. All of your super accounts in your name will appear.

5. Choose the fund you want to transfer the money from, called the ‘transferring fund’ and then choose the fund you want the money to transfer into called the ‘receiving fund’.

6. Confirm your choice and all your account should move into the ‘receiving fund’ within three days.

7. You can also contact your fund and ask them to help consolidate for you.

Source: Superguru.com.au.

**** Scott Pape is on leave and returns on Sunday, April 28.

Originally published as Australians are being urged to find any lingering superannuation money