It doesn’t take a super effort to keep your nest egg in check

HAS the Australian Taxation Office got hold of your super?

If you’re like millions of Australians, you may not even realise it.

As new laws are enacted to ban exit fees, cap other fees and consolidate inactive and lowbalance superannuation accounts through the ATO, it’s an ideal time to check that your own inaction is not eating into your life savings.

Technology has turned this into a simple process through the my.gov.au website.

Fresh figures from the ATO show that 66,000 people consolidated more than 105,000 accounts worth $860 million in the last three months of 2018.

ATO assistant commissioner Graham Whyte said consolidating multiple accounts minimised fees and delivered better retirements, and the latest figures were encouraging. “But there is still over $17.5 billion in lost and unclaimed super,” he said.

Consolidating online can take just a few minutes.

“If you’re not sure whether to consolidate, check with your super fund who can advise you on issues such as insurance that may be attached to your accounts,” Mr Whyte said.

Goldsborough Financial Services director and adviser Brenton Miegel said the ATO’s super consolidation system was great, but people should first check if consolidating would result in them losing insurance cover they might not be able to get back.

“Don’t just blindly move all the super into a single fund before you make sure it’s the appropriate fund for your situation,” he said.

Mr Miegel said Australians tended to be lazy and complacent about financial matters that were not considered urgent.