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Lost and inactive members

The benefits of lost or inactive members are protected by:

Who is a lost member?

Members are considered lost if:

  • a fund has never had an address for them, or
  • at least one or more attempts have been made to contact them at their last known address, and
  • the member has not contacted the fund in any way in the last 12 months, and
  • the member has not accessed any information about their interest through any electronic facility in the last 12 months, and
  • the fund has not received any contribution or rollover into the member's account within the last 12 months.

See Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Regulations 1999 (Cth) reg 1.03A

Who is an inactive member?

Members are considered inactive if:

  • they have been members for at least 2 years, and
  • when they joined the fund they were a standard employer-sponsored member, and
  • the fund has not received any contribution or rollover into the member's account within the last 5 years, or
  • in some other circumstances when they joined the fund from another fund as a lost member and the fund has not verified the address in the last 2 years.

See Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Regulations 1999 (Cth) reg 1.03A

What protection is available?

The full account balance of lost members must be protected whether the account balance exceeds $1000 or not. Protection begins 90 days after a member is determined to be lost.

Paying the benefits into a rollover fund

A fund trustee may choose to roll a lost member’s benefits into an eligible rollover fund rather than maintain the accounts.

Reporting lost members to the Tax Office

Superannuation funds (including eligible rollover funds) must report lost members to the Commissioner for Taxation and provide details, including the members’ withdrawal benefits, every six months.

Finding lost superannuation

The Australian Tax Office maintains a register of lost members with a view to re-uniting people with their superannuation benefits. Members of the public can see some details from the register on the Australian Tax Office’s website free of charge. People can log into or register for a MyGov account to see whether any of the lost or unclaimed super in the register is theirs.

Lost and inactive members  :  Last Revised: Fri Nov 9th 2018
The content of the Law Handbook is made available as a public service for information purposes only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for legal advice. See Disclaimer for details. For free and confidential legal advice in South Australia call 1300 366 424.