How you could make $20,000 in no time at all

The ATO is sitting on $11.7 billion of lost super. Some of it could be yours

Mike King

Mike King is a Fool.com.au Investment Analyst and Writer. He caught the investing bug more than a decade ago, at a time when the U.S. had invaded Iraq and fear reigned in the markets. His initial success as the markets took off encouraged his passion and thirst for knowledge. With 13 years behind him at one of Australia's largest domestic banks, Mike's passion for stocks led him to join a boutique funds management firm, where he stayed for four years. A seven-year stint in equity research at one of the largest investment banks in the world followed that, giving Mike a thirst to pursue his passion further. Mike holds a Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment and a Graduate Certificate in Financial Planning. His passion is to help retail investors invest better, and that passion was one of his primary reasons for joining The Motley Fool Australia in late 2011. Mike has written thousands of articles since joining, including for Fairfax Media, Yahoo!7, Ninemsn and has also appeared on ABC's The Business. You can see all of Mikes' holdings here

Published August 18, 2016 2:59 pm AEST

Spend 5 minutes of your time looking for lost super and you could be looking at an average of $20,000 of your own money – the easiest money anyone can ever make.

According to new data from the Australian Tax Office (ATO), there is now $11.7 billion sitting in 591,522 lost superannuation accounts – an average of $19,691 per account. Super accounts are flagged as 'lost' when the super fund is unable to contact the account holder and hasn't received a contribution to an account for five years.

While the average account balance sits at $10,000, many have a few hundred thousand dollars in them. News.com.au reports that one individual recovered $994,000 of lost super from the ATO in October 2015 and a 50-year old recovered $140,000.

According to ATO deputy commissioner James O'Halloran, "A lot of people who work casually while they were studying or working multiple part-time jobs fund super they had completely forgotten about. While some people purposefully maintain a number of accounts, a lot of Australians are unaware their hard earned super is unnecessarily being eroded away by fees."

According to news.com.au, a Westpac lost Super Report found that nearly 75% of the population said that they wished they had looked after their super better when they were younger.

The report found that for every $1 recovered in lost super today equates to $10 in retirement. Find $20,000 of your super and that could mean an additional $200,000 for your retirement.

All lost super accounts with balances of $4,000 or less are transferred to the ATO and become "unclaimed super". Anyone can claim back their lost super at any time.

The easiest way of finding your lost super is to ask your existing super fund for help to find lost accounts. It's a free service and it's also wise to avoid those companies advertising online to find your super for a fee. You can also use several ATO tool here.

If your lost super account had a tax file number associated with it, logging into the MyGov website and searching the ATO part for super is another easy way to find lost or unclaimed super.

Australians can also search the ATO Superseeker website.

NSW, Victoria and Queensland have the largest lost super balances of $3.5 billion, $2.458 billion and $2.345 billion respectively.

There are two main reasons why Australians should periodically check for lost super and consolidate their super accounts.

Fees can erode your super balance if it is sitting in multiple accounts – and you could be paying for multiple insurance policies you don't need and can't use.
By consolidating your super, you avoid most of those fees and you also have a better chance of generating better returns for your retirement.

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