On March 12 2019, the Senate passed significant pieces of super legislation, known as the Protecting Your Superannuation package. So what does this mean for you?

Capped fees on low-account balances

New measures will now be put into place in order to prevent high fees from eating away at low balance accounts. Accounts containing $6000 or less will have their fees capped at 3 per cent, as well as all exit fees abolished. As of July 1, these accounts will also be auto-consolidated if left inactive for a period of six months. As an estimated one-third of super accounts are unwanted additional accounts, this is huge for the Australian public.

Life insurance opt-in & activation

Super members will now need to ‘opt-in’ or activate their existing life insurance policies attached to their super, if they have not made any contributions or rollover to the fund within 16 months. After this time, accounts will then automatically be made inactive.

Royal Commission measures

On-top of the newly added measures mentioned above, two of the recommendations championed by Commissioner Kenneth Hayne have also been adopted in order to curb bad behaviour within the industry.

There will now be civil penalties enforced for funds not acting in the member’s best interest as well as for providing lavish gifts or benefits to large employers within the fund.

What’s next?

Book an appointment online with one of our financial advisers if you would like any clarification on the above. Your allocated superfund provider will reach out if any of your funds are in breach of being made inactive and will provide you further instructions on how to keep them active, if you so desire.