‘Missing’ superannuation funds reach $18b; For NSW and Victoria, the average estimated lost amount per person with super is about $2500

June 14, 2013 Leave a comment

‘Missing’ super funds reach $18b

June 14, 2013

John Collett

The pile of ”lost” superannuation has risen to $18.1 billion, up from $17.4 billion a year ago.

The latest Westpac Lost Super Report, researched by Core Data, estimates half the population with superannuation funds is likely to have lost some super.

”We are all planning to retire, so why don’t more of us spend just a few minutes to find any lost super?” Westpac head of superannuation Deanne Stewart said.

For NSW and Victoria, the average estimated lost amount per person with super is about $2500.Super money is deemed ”lost” when funds do not have the contact details of the member and the fund has been inactive for a specified minimum period.

Multiple super accounts – where a person has several accounts with different funds – is one of the main reasons people fail to keep track of their super. The report estimates that almost a third of Australians with superannuation have more than one super account.

Multiple accounts are more likely with those who change jobs often, especially those working in retail and hospitality where part-time and casual employment is common.

The government has long recognised the problem of lost super and has introduced several reforms to help reunite the money with its owners.

Next year, superannuation funds will start automatic consolidation of some accounts of their members. The Tax Office and super funds are making increasing use of tax file numbers to make owners aware of their lost super.

Also, super funds must transfer money from accounts to the Tax Office if the accounts have been inactive, the owner cannot be contacted, and where there is less than $2000 in the account. Interest is paid on the super account at a rate equal to inflation while the Tax Office uses its data-matching capabilities to locate the owners.

Locating lost super is easy. You can check for lost super by visiting ato.gov.au/superseeker or by calling 13 28 65.

Filed under Macro Trends

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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