What it means for you
Changes to fees
- There is a 3% cap on administration and investment fees for accounts with balances below $6,000.
- Exit fees, including fees for part withdrawals, have been banned. AustralianSuper removed exit fees 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:
- we haven’t received a contribution to your account; and
- you haven’t changed your insurance cover, switched your investments, made or amended a binding beneficiary nomination on your account or told us in writing that you don’t want to be transferred.
Within 28 days of receiving your money, 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 person who has not died
- is in accumulation phase
- accepts government rollovers
- has received a contribution in the current or previous financial year
- the balance of the active super account after we initiate transfer of certain types of ATO-held super is equal to or greater than $6,000.
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 will not accumulate an investment return.
When you claim your super from the ATO any interest due will be paid to you. Interest paid is based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
If you have less than $200 or you are aged over 65
If you have less than $200 or you are aged over 65 years, 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:
- make a contribution to your account*
- change your insurance*
- make an investment choice
- nominate a binding beneficiary to your account, or
- combine your super accounts so your balance is $6,000 or more*.
- tell us in writing that you don’t want to be transferred by completing the Authorisation for ATO declaration form.
Changes to insurance
- If you haven’t received money (any type of contribution) into your super account for 16 months, you could lose your insurance cover.
- From 1 July 2019, if you haven’t received money for 9, 12 and 15 months, we’ll write to you with your options if you want to keep your cover.
Things you can do
To keep your cover, you could consider:- making a contribution to your account (for example once a year)
- telling your employer to contribute to your account*, or
- combining your super accounts so your balance is $6,000 or more*.
*You should check the fees, charges and insurance cover of your current super fund before making a decision about AustralianSuper.