Find your lost super

It's a surprising fact, but right now there are literally billions of dollars sitting unclaimed – and some of it could belong to you. Are you keen to find out if you have some claim to a part of this gigantic pool of cash?

Your first stop should be the Tax Office, which has a list of the names of people who have been reported by their super funds as lost. Called the 'lost members register', the list contains names from super funds, approved deposit funds, eligible rollover funds and retirement savings accounts.

The Tax Office is also where you will find the free service called SuperSeeker. This is a tool that will search the lost members register and the Tax Office's other records to give you possible matches for your lost super. You will need your tax file number (click here to access the SuperSeeker tool).

If there is a match, you will get the name and contact details of the fund that may be holding your lost super. You can then arrange to either withdraw the money (the Tax Office says it may be possible to get amounts of $200 or less, see below), or roll the amount over into another super fund. Generally it makes a lot of sense to consolidate your super into one fund so that you cut back on multiple fees and charges.

Federal Treasury reported 3.5 million 'lost' superannuation accounts holding a total of $18.1 billion as at December 2012. This last figure is about 10% less than 18 months previously, but still represents roughly one in five of every superannuation account.

You may already have an inkling that there could be super money out there that you've lost track of – you could have changed jobs a number of times in the last few years, or changed address, or even your name, and any super funds that were holding funds for you just may not have your most current details.

A lot of the lost money is in smaller amounts, and technically speaking it's not free cash that's up for grabs ­– it's your money anyway. And the tax rules that apply to all your other super entitlements will still apply. But with most super fund performances not necessarily surging upwards lately, and fees also eating into what's left, finding a cache of extra money, no matter how small, is probably worth the effort.

Super is considered 'lost' if the fund can't reach you, but also if the account has been inactive, with no contributions or rollover amounts being deposited for a period of five years. Unclaimed super money can also come about where an account is split, such as in a divorce settlement.

When looking for lost super that may belong to you, you also have an option to use the services of a company that specialises in this sort of thing (one of which claims to have re-united 125,000 Australians with $40 million) or you can put in some footwork yourself (such as using the SuperSeeker tool).

From July 1, 2013, the government will require super providers to report and pay the following accounts to the Tax Office as unclaimed super:

• lost accounts with balances of less than $2,000 (increased from $200 to protect balances from fee erosion)
• lost accounts that have been inactive for a period of five years and have insufficient records to ever identify the owner of the account (insoluble lost member accounts).

Individuals can search for these types of accounts using the SuperSeeker tool and lodge a claim for them with the Tax Office. SuperSeeker will display all unclaimed super, including small and insoluble lost member accounts, where a high confidence match with records has been identified.

In many cases, any lost money may have been transferred into an eligible rollover fund. These were created to hold otherwise unallocated money to give some protection against erosion of funds through administration costs.  Unclaimed super funds such as Ausfund can help with a search.

In some cases unclaimed super money can be left under the administration of a state or territory government, so it could pay to have a search of the relevant department (as well as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission). The online contacts are:

• NSW - The Public Trustee of NSW - Unclaimed money register
• QLD - The Public Trustee of QLD - Unclaimed money register
• VIC - The State Trustees of Victoria - Unclaimed money register
• WA - The Public Trustee of Western Australia - Unclaimed money register
• ACT - The Public Trustee of Australian Capital Territory - Unclaimed money register
• TAS - The Public Trustee of Tasmania - Unclaimed money register
• SA - The Department of Treasury & Finance South Australia ‑ Unclaimed money register
• NT - Northern Territory Treasury ‑ Unclaimed money register
• ASIC - Australian Securities and Investments Commission ASIC - Unclaimed money register

Previous employers may be able to help, especially if you can't recall which super fund an employer contributed to, as they are more likely to either remember or have records.

As a final resort, you could also try the industry super fund that is most relevant to the sector you know you were working for in the past. For example, if you were working in a shop or department store of some sort, the most likely industry fund may be REST, which is the superannuation fund for retail employees. HOSTPLUS is the industry super fund for the hospitality, tourism and sport industries, and HESTA is for the health and community services industries.

You might be able to find your industry fund on the Industry Super Funds website.

Last reviewed 8/03/2013

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