Consolidate super now or ATO will do it for you

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: 61 PER CENT of people have one super account; 25 PER CENT have two super accounts; 9 PER CENT have three accounts; 3 PER CENT have four accounts; 1 PER CENT hold five accounts; and, 1 PER CENT hold six or more.

But many inactive super accounts – when your account balance is under $6000, has no insurance and has not had certain types of activity in the past 16 months – 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 merge four super accounts into one.

“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.

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 had closed 27,000 accounts.

Sunsuper has had almost 23,000 members consolidate more than 30,000 accounts in the past three months.

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