Protecting Your Super
HAPPY NEW (financial) YEAR!
To help us celebrate, the government has introduced some fun new changes to the world of super! Well, as fun as they can be.
The policy was designed to shield low balance super accounts from creeping costs and pricey premiums.
The aptly named Protecting Your Super (PYS) changes may affect a number of our members, so we wanted to summarise what’s been revised and what we have put in place to help.
So buckle up and get ready to read about some legislation!
Here’s a quick list of the changes:
Exit fees are now banned — we didn’t charge one in the first place, but it’s still a win!
Fee cap of 3% on balances under $6,000 — Future Super is waiving the annual dollar-based member fee on balances under $6,000. This means that our Balanced Index option is now one of the lowest fee super products available for low balance members!
Inactive low balance accounts may be rolled over to the ATO — The new rules mean that accounts need to be 'active' otherwise they may be transferred to the ATO. An account is considered active it has received a contribution in the past 16 months or has a balance greater than $6,000.
Insurance may be cancelled on inactive accounts — Accounts which have insurance attached to them and have remained inactive for 16 months may have the insurance cancelled.
**What is Protecting Your Super?**
The PYS changes were introduced because a lot of low balance super accounts were at risk of being chewed up by fees and insurance premiums. That super account many of us didn’t know we had from working hospitality jobs years ago were in danger of being whittled away.
The new rule changes are designed to protect those low balance accounts from erosion by fees and insurance premiums and to help people consolidate their multiple super accounts.
Under these changes, there are two categories of members who might be affected:
Members with accounts which have insurance attached to them and have remained inactive for 16 months may have the insurance cancelled.
Inactive low-balance super accounts may be transferred to the ATO and, where possible, consolidated into active accounts.
How do I find out if Protecting Your Super impacts me?
Accounts affected under PYS must meet the following criteria:
A members whole account balance is less than $6,000 AND one or more of the following;
You have not received an amount for crediting into your account (such as rollovers or contributions) within the last 16 months;
You have not satisfied a prescribed condition of release;
There is no insurance on the account;
You have not amended your insurance cover in the past 16 months;
You have not made or amended a binding nomination of beneficiaries;
What classifies an Inactive low balance account
An Inactive low balance account is essentially a super account with a balance below $6,000 and none above stated actions have occurred in the past 16 months. The result of this is that the balance will be transferred to the ATO.
What classifies an Inactive account for insurance purposes
An inactive account for insurance purposes is where contributions have not been received in your account for the past 16 months and that you have not let us know that you’d like to continue to hold insurance cover.
To find out your super balance, you can log in to your Member Portal here.
If Protecting Your Super impacts me, what do I need to do?
Inactive Accounts
If your account is considered inactive, you just need to do one of the following actions to stop your account from being rolled over to the ATO:
Making a contribution or having your employer contribute to your account,
Amend your insurance cover,
Making an investment option switch,
Nominating a Binding Beneficiary to your account, or
Combining your super accounts so your balance is $6,000 or more.
Insurance
To prevent your insurance cover being cancelled, you are required to make a financial change on your superannuation account. This could be one of the following:
Making a contribution or having your employer contribute to your account
Combine your super accounts
Elect to maintain your insurance
Making an election to keep insurance
You can make an election to keep your insurance cover by emailing us at info@myfuturesuper.com.au and specifying the following information:
Your email should include your full name, date of birth and member number.
Please specify that you consent to maintain all your existing insurance cover in the event that your account becomes inactive for a continuous period of 16 months, notwithstanding that your account may become inactive again.
Once you’ve done this, we won’t need you to do it again, even if your account remains inactive.
More information on insurance can be found here. If you want to know more about the insurance cover types specific to Future Super, please see the Insurance Guide.
Fee limit on low-balance accounts
From 1 July 2019, Future Super will not charge the annual dollar-based fee on accounts with balances of less than $6,000. This is due to the new changes whereby administration and investment fees charged cannot exceed 3% of the balances of accounts with less than $6,000*. This makes our Balanced Index option one of the lowest fee super products available for low balance members!
If you want to make changes to your account so that this will not impact you, log into your Member Portal here or get in touch with the Member Advocacy team on 1300 658 422 or info@myfuturesuper.com.au.
Where can I find more information?
You can learn more about the rules around inactivity and how PYS laws may affect you on the ATO website and the APRA website.
*This does not include buy/sell spreads, insurance premiums and other activity fees such as investment switches (if applicable) and family law fees.