What is super stapling? How does it help employees?

Anyone who’s been in the workforce for a significant amount of time and has changed jobs or careers multiple times may be familiar will the problem of having several super accounts linked to their name.

This is where a stapled super fund can save a lot of hassles and help your super to be streamlined and simplified.

What is a stapled super fund?

A stapled super fund is a super account that follows you whenever you change jobs. In essence, this prevents you from having multiple super accounts throughout your career.

If you change jobs, you will generally be allowed to choose whether you want to stay with your existing fund, join your employer’s preferred super fund or pick a new one altogether.

What do the new rules say?

New rules brought in last November mean that if you change jobs and you make no decision regarding where you want your super to go, your new employer has to ask you for details about your stapled super fund, if you have one.

In other words, an employer can’t just start a new fund for you as per their own preferences.

In the event you don’t provide your new employer with the details of your stapled super fund, then your employer is allowed to approach the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for help.

Getting your stapled super fund

The ATO selects your stapled super fund based on the information it holds about your existing super fund membership.

If you already have a single super account, then the ATO will inform your employer about it and that would be your stapled super fund account for future contributions.

What if you have more than one super account?

If you have more than one super account linked to your name, the ATO applies “tiebreaker” rules to determine which fund to choose as your stapled fund.

The “tiebreaker” rules take into account whether it has previously identified one of your accounts as a stapled super fund, the last contributions to the account, when the accounts were created and the amount of money in each of them.

Bottom line

Super is an important part of your retirement savings, and it should be monitored and kept organised to ensure you get the best out of your working life. In order to do this, shop around and find which super fund best suits your needs.