Are you one of the millions of Australians with lost super

Few Australians realise they have lost super but the Australian Tax Office estimated as of June 30 last year, 7.3 million accounts together holding some $18.9 billion were declared as being ‘lost super’ either by funds or the ATO.

So, are you one of the millions of Australians with a ‘lost super’ account?

Few Australians know that if you leave money in a super account for five years and you fail to make any contributions or rollovers into that fund for five years, your super will be deemed lost.

The same will happen if your fund loses contact with you. This could happen if you change your name or address or for some reason your fund decides that you are uncontactable.

All superannuation funds are under an obligation if either of these things happen to declare your superannuation savings as being lost and then they will transfer these funds to the Australian Tax Office.

There, the funds are kept safe until you claim them and any super, that has been transferred to the ATO will appear as ATO held super on your fund detail page in ATO online services.

If you are technology literate and have time on your hands, you can search for super yourself online and I would urge anyone who has had a broken employment record or has moved around a lot, to take the time to search for any lost super.

You can do this yourself by logging in to the Tax Office online services page and going through your myGOV External link or by using the ATO app. You can also check by the ATO automated Super Search line on 13 28 65 or calling the ATOdirect on 13 10 20.

If you are time poor, or not the best when it comes to technology, we can help by generating a paper-based form which you can simply sign, and we can send to the ATO on your behalf.

To do this we need a copy of both sides of your current driver’s licence, your tax file number and any previous names you might have been known by or previous address to help identify you.

Then any lost super will be directly transferred to your super account, and we can put it to work on your behalf. You simply need to contact me.