Today, on the 1st of July, the Australian Governments Superannuation reforms come into force. The Government claims that these reforms will save Australians $17.9 billion over 10 years.
The reforms have four main elements. How they impact you varies depending on if you are an employer, an employee, or a trustee of a super fund. The changes are :
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the measures will ensure the super system works harder for all Australians…SUPERANNUATION IS YOUR MONEY AND SHOULD BE CHECKED REGULARLY
YourSuper Comparison Tool
- displays a table of 80 MySuper products ranked by fees and net returns (updated quarterly)
- allows you to select and compare in more detail up to four MySuper products at a time
- links you to a super fund’s website when you select a MySuper product from the table
- can show your current super accounts alongside other MySuper products if you access the personalised version through myGov
- provides links to help you consolidate your super accounts.
The YourSuper Comparison Tool link is here however when I visited the site today, it is displaying an error. Maybe give them a little more time to get the tool working.
Change to Trustee’s Duties
Trustee’s of super funds must now act only in the best interests of the members of the fund and provide better information to members about how they manage and spend the members money.
Super Fund Underperformance Assessment
APRA (Australian Prudential Regulation Authority) will start benchmarking the performance of super funds to determine if they are performing. A super fund that fails to meet a set benchmark will be required to inform its members. If a fund fails two years running, it will not be allowed to accept new members.
Stapled Super Fund
Previously if an employee did not nominate a super fund upon employment, the employer could create a new account on the employee’s behalf. Now, a new super fund will not be created every time an employee starts a new job. An employee’s first super fund will be ‘stapled’ to them when they change jobs, avoiding additional fees and insurances that erode many super fund balances when spread across multiple accounts.
Employers must obtain information about the employees existing or ‘stapled’ fund from the ATO if this information is not provided by the employee.