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While losing your wallet and keys may be fairly easy for some having your super go AWOL it not that difficult either. Change jobs, move house, fail to update your records, let a bit of time pass and bang! Lost super.
People find it difficult to remember the names of the fund they belong to although they may remember the company name. The Australian Taxation Office says more than five million accounts, worth a whopping $8 billion, are tagged as "lost".
How so? Super is likely go missing if you have changed jobs a lot or moved addresses and your fund hasn't been able to contact you. This could mean those hard-earned pennies you've been saved up for your retirement could be sitting in an eligible rollover fund with you classified as a lost member.
Reuniting you with your lost super
Following the Federal Government's major reform of super in July 2007, efforts have been made to simplify many aspects of superannuation tax and tracking lost superannuation. The Australian Taxation Office has a free search engine, known as "SuperSeeker", to help you become your own online super sleuth. There is also a self-help phone service and downloadable form if you prefer other methods. Make sure you have a few hours to spare when you log on though and have your tax file number handy. The hunt can be a mammoth task at times.
An online search can provide possible matches, but no figures on how much you've got squirreled away. You will then have to contact the super funds directly by phone yourself. More form-filling usually ensues, before your lost dollars can be rolled over into your current fund.
Alternatively, you can contact your current super fund and ask them to conduct a search on your behalf via "SuperMatch" - an electronic commerce interface, which gives organisations information from the lost members register.
Why trace your super?
If your uncle gave you $10,000 cash would you leave it lying around? No, probably not. Contributions to your superannuation can add up and those missing amounts could be making you more money as a lump sum (and attracting fewer fees) if they were all in the one place. To make your money work for you finding your lost super sooner rather than later will give you a better outcome, whether you are wanting a retirement payout or are about to start a new job (and, possibly, sign up with yet another super fund).
Sooner rather than later is the best approach to tracing your super as this will save you time and paperwork later on. Also, there may be some lag time after you've identified the missing funds between identifying the funds, claiming them and having them appear in your current superannuation fund. Better still, try to stay in touch with your super as you go along, rather than search for it later.The more "super" organised you are, the better off you'll be in the long run, literally.
