Protecting Your Super

What it means for you

Changes to fees

• There is a 3% cap on administration and investment fees for super accounts with balances below $6,000.
• Exit fees, including partial withdrawals were banned from 1 July 2019 under Protecting Your Super legislation (PYS). AustralianSuper removed exit fees earlier on 30 March 2019.

Inactive account transfer

Under PYS legislation your account will be considered inactive and transferred to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) if your account balance is below $6,000 and within the last 16 months:

1. we haven’t received a contribution to your account; and
2. you haven’t changed your insurance cover, switched your investments, made or amended a binding death benefit nomination on your account or told us in writing that you don’t want to be transferred.

The ATO will transfer it to an active super fund if you have one, and the transfer will result in your active account having a total balance of $6,000 or more. An active super account is defined as an account that:

• is held by a living person
• is in accumulation phase
• accepts government rollovers
• has received a contribution in the current or previous financial year
• has a balance of $6,000 or more after the transfer of ATO-held super.

If the ATO are unable to transfer your super to an active account, they will retain your money and you’ll pay no fees, but you won’t earn market investment returns.

When you claim your super from the ATO, interest will be paid based on their calculation method.

Regardless of whether the ATO transfers your account to an active super fund or retains your money, you will lose any insurance cover you have with AustralianSuper.

If you have less than $200 or you are aged over 65

If you have less than $200 or you are aged 65 or over, the ATO will make a direct payment to you via the account or address details they have on file for you and where possible, contact you to let you know.

Reactivating your account

If you don’t want your super to be transferred to the ATO, you need to take at least one of the following actions:

1. make a contribution to your account¹
2. change your insurance²
3. make or change investment options(s)
4. make or amend a binding death benefit nomination on your account
5. combine your super accounts so your balance is $6,000 or more³ or,
6. tell us in writing that you don’t want to be transferred by completing the Authorisation for ATO declaration form.

Things you can do

To keep your insurance cover, you could consider:

• making a contribution to your account¹ (for example once a year)
• telling your employer to contribute to your account,⁴ or
• combining your super accounts so your balance is $6,000 or more.³