For many people, there are potential benefits to rolling your super accounts together. However, there are people for whom having more than one super account can be the better choice.
Let’s have a look at a few examples:
Running a Self-Managed Super fund
If you are running a Self-Managed Super Fund you may wish to keep your Death, TPD and Disability Income Benefit (Income Protection) insurance through your ElectricSuper Division 5 Accumulation account. This could be a good reason to keep more than 1 super account active.
If this is you, you can roll your super that’s in ElectricSuper to another super fund of your choice once a year. That other super fund could be your Self-Managed Super Fund.
To keep your ElectricSuper account open:
- you need to keep a minimum of $6,000 in your ElectricSuper account
- your employer needs to make their regular employer contributions into your ElectricSuper account throughout the year.
If your balance falls too low to cover your insurance premiums, your insurance cover will stop.
Benefits that are too good to give up
If your other super account offers you benefits that you don’t want to give up, don’t! Keeping those benefits could be a good reason to have more than 1 super account.
For example, you might have insurance with your other fund that you were granted before you developed health conditions. Those newly developed health conditions might mean that you couldn’t get insurance now. Or it could mean that any insurance you could get would be limited or could exclude certain conditions.
Or, you might have a level of insurance cover at a price that you can’t match in ElectricSuper.
On top of that, if you have a defined benefit account with another super fund, you need to be careful about the impacts if you roll that account out and close it. Does it mean that you will lose any positives that might apply to your defined benefit account? You may need to speak to an expert in the area to understand what the specifics are in your case.
Perhaps your other fund offers you another great benefit that you really appreciate. This could be something like your other fund being a constitutionally protected scheme, which could give you more freedom regarding the amount you can salary sacrifice into your super. Or it might be that you live outside of South Australia and your other fund has a member centre you can drop into in the city you live in.
Investment choice
Having 2 super accounts may give you more flexibility and choice when it comes to investing your super.
Along with being able to invest across the 4 pre-mixed ElectricSuper options, having another super account may mean you can diversify further. For example, some other funds offer their members the option to directly invest in shares or other investments. If you’re a more hands-on investor, this could suit you.
International super/pensions
Because ElectricSuper isn’t an APRA-regulated fund, we aren’t able to accept KiwiSaver accounts from New Zealand (Aotearoa). We are also not a Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme so we cannot accept private pensions from the UK. If you wish to move a pension or retirement savings account from overseas, you may need a super account that is eligible to receive the funds, otherwise you may end up being very heavily taxed – or your money may even end up being returned overseas!
Some international pension or retirement accounts need you to maintain your retirement savings in an authorised super account until you reach a certain age, or until your money has been in Australia for a specified length of time, so you may need to maintain your other account for the required duration.
There are a lot of variables about international pensions and retirement savings, including the different ways that these accounts are taxed and what is and is not permitted. You need to do your own research about what you are allowed to do in your own case. But, having more than 1 super account might be appropriate for you in this case.
More information
If you want to learn more about your situation, we strongly recommend that you speak to a financial adviser. Everyone’s individual situation is different.
Want to roll your super over?
If you do want to roll your other super over into your ElectricSuper account, it’s easy to do. Just go to your myGov account and choose which of your other super you want to roll over to ElectricSuper.