Searching for lost super

Have you kept track of all your superannuation? If you’ve changed jobs a lot, or done casual or part-time work, you may have lost some super along the way.

While it’s never too late to catch up with your money, Rebecca’s story shows why it’s better to stay in touch with your super as you go rather than track it down later.

How it all began….

Recently, at a money expo I picked up a fridge magnet which said 'Find Lost Super – www.ato.gov.au/super' and thought why not?

Sure enough at the Australian Taxation Office website, I discovered a free search engine to reunite me with my lost superannuation. The links were really easy to follow, although I needed my tax file number to do an online search. I had two possible matches, the first with a super fund and the second with a ‘rollover fund’.

Contact phone numbers were given, but no amounts. I was delighted and determined to be reunited with any lost superannuation that I might have.

Contacting the super fund

The first match between the super fund and me brought back memories of working part time in retail during university.

I called them. The contact officer was really helpful, and after about five minutes of questioning and searches, she told me that the fund had held $93.01 in my name. However, this amount had been transferred to a rollover fund on 4 August 2002. She had no further information, and said I would need to contact the rollover fund.

The rollover fund, first contact

I then telephoned the rollover fund. Their contact officer located $106.76 but said they had received this amount from a life insurance company. A little puzzled, I assumed that maybe $93.01 from the super fund was transferred to the life company where it earned interest of about $10, and had then ended up in the rollover fund.

I asked what options I had. The rollover fund person said they would send me a member statement and brochure outlining the options with relevant forms.

Maybe there's more out there…

As I hung up the phone, I had a brainwave. Seeing that the life insurance company name had not shown up from my internet search, maybe there were other super funds and companies with unclaimed money of mine.

I felt blessed: here was a new way to reduce my credit card debt.

What other super had I forgotten?

Where had I worked? Which funds did they use? How could I contact them? I racked my brains, dug out my CV and pestered former work colleagues and friends.

I ended up with a list of eight different bits of super that I had lost track of, together with the names of the funds and the rough dates for the various jobs I had worked in, such as a six month job as an articled clerk, another retail job, a tutoring job and four different clerical jobs during holiday breaks.

One name that cropped up was the life insurance company that the rollover fund told me about. I now realised that this money, the $107, had come from vacation work, not the retail job where I had found my original $93.01. The rollover fund must have had two amounts of money.

Back on the trail of $93.01

I called the rollover fund back to find the $93.01 that had been transferred from the super fund. Even though I had the details of when the transaction occurred, the exact amount and details about myself, the contact officer was unable to find any trace of it.

Having started out feeling it was all going to simple and straightforward, I now began feeling frustrated.

I rang the super fund back to explain the situation. They couldn't give me any more information. However they transferred me to the rollover fund again but to a different person who found the amount immediately and sent me a member's statement and brochure.

The rollover fund brochures and forms

My statements from the rollover fund arrived showing funds of around $200.

Because of the small amount involved, I could withdraw this money from my super, so long as I paid tax. I decided to withdraw the money. The documents were straightforward to understand and only 2 pages long.

I sent the forms back to the rollover fund several weeks ago, and recently got a letter saying that the application is being processed.

The rest of my lost super

I decided to chase up the super from my previous full-time job first. I phoned the fund manager and they found about $700. The contact officers were helpful, and explained my different options:

transfer the money to my current fund
keep the money with them
withdraw the money if I met the conditions under the legislation (I did not).

They then directed me to their website and the form for me to download.

Unfortunately, the form was 6 pages long with all sorts of questions I found impossible to answer. For example, I did not know what type of policy I held, only a policy number. I did not know details of my 'rollover institution', and hadn't a clue about the 'SPIN' of the destination fund or the 'fund number'.

Detective work and fiddly forms

By this stage, what I first thought would be a half-hour exercise had taken several hours, and I still had more detective work to do.

I decided that I would find the relevant information I needed and work out the fiddly details of the form when I had more time. It's extra difficult when the institutions are open only during business hours, rather than weekends.

I did call several other funds and discovered that either no super was paid or that the amount is very small (consistent with being paid lowly wages on work experience). I still have one or two other funds to call.

My tips

Finding your lost superannuation is really worthwhile. However, so you don't get too discouraged, be prepared to:

spend time chasing details and forms
face unfamiliar terms that you will have to get explained
dig up verification documents which you might not have on you.

In hindsight, I would have been much better offer not losing touch with my super in the first place.

Read more about how to reduce problems of lost super

FIDO Website: Printed 07/31/2010