All superannuation providers - including superannuation funds, eligible rollover funds, retirement savings accounts and approved deposit funds - must report lost members to the Tax Office. The Tax Office keeps a list of people who have been reported as lost on their Lost Members Register.
A lost member is a member of a super fund who:
- is an inactive member - they are inactive if they joined, as a standard employer-sponsored member, more than two years ago, and there have been no contributions or rollover amounts in the last five years
- transferred from another super provider as a lost member and you haven't found or been advised of a new address, or
- cannot be contacted - you may not have been advised of your member's address or mail sent to your member's last known address has been returned unclaimed. If one piece of mail is returned to you unclaimed by the member, you may choose to report the member as lost. However if you receive two pieces of mail unclaimed by the member you are required to report the member as lost.
- The fund or the member has confirmed the member's current address within the past 2 years or the member is permanently excluded from becoming a lost member.
A member can be permanently excluded from becoming a lost member if they:
- are an inactive member of the fund, but indicate by a positive act, for example, deferring a benefit, that they wish to remain a member
- contact you and indicate that they want to remain a member, or
- are a member of an SMSF.
Yes. You must report details of 'found' members - that is, members previously reported as lost who have since been located.
You must also report 'transferred' members - that is, previously reported lost members whose account was transferred out of the fund to an eligible rollover fund or to another fund via a successor fund transfer, or transferred to the State Government or Tax Office.
You must also report 'deleted' members - that is, members previously reported as lost who should not have been reported as they were not lost.
You must also report if you have no lost members or no changes to the status of previously reported members that is, funds must provide a non lodgement report in this circumstance.
If you are transferring a lost member to another superannuation fund for any reason, such as when your fund is winding-up, you should ensure that the following process is followed:
- The fund that is winding-up should advise the new fund that the transferred member is a lost member.
- The new fund should report to the Tax Office that the transferred member is a lost member.
- The fund that is winding-up should report to the Tax Office that they've transferred the lost member's superannuation benefit from the fund.
- The Tax Office will update the LMR when it receives the new information.
If a person has been a member of a superannuation fund which has now closed (wound-up), they may not know the name of the fund now holding their superannuation benefit. These people should search the LMR using SuperSeeker.
SuperSeeker is a tool that looks for lost superannuation and instantly provides possible matches of members with their funds.
SuperSeeker can be accessed:
- If a member does not know the details of the fund and there is no record of the member's benefit on the LMR, they may wish to contact their former employer/s for details of the superannuation fund/s into which their superannuation was paid.