Unclaimed super obligations
APRA funds have reporting and payment obligations under the Superannuation (Unclaimed Money and Lost Members) Act 1999 (SUMLMA).
Funds are also obliged to take a member's individual circumstances into account, in line with the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993.
A fund should decide whether its actions are appropriate to members by:
- ensuring the member's best interests are your primary concern
- always making reasonable attempts to contact the member to advise them of their entitlement to a super benefit before reporting their account
- applying unclaimed money tests at the member level, not the account level.
After you have determined a member’s benefit, report and pay the amount to the ATO on the next scheduled statement date.
State and territory super schemes
The information in this protocol doesn't apply to funds that are trustees of a state or territory public sector super scheme, where the:
- relevant state or territory has laws requiring the reporting and payment of unclaimed super money to the state or territory government
- state or territory public sector super scheme complies with relevant state or territory laws.
Contact your state or territory authority to check whether your reporting obligations are to them or the ATO.
How to report to ATO
Where a state or territory doesn't have laws requiring the reporting of unclaimed super money to the state or territory government, the state or territory public sector super scheme is required to report to the ATO, as outlined in this protocol.
Funds must report and pay in the approved form by the scheduled statement due dates. For information on when and how to report unclaimed super, see Your reporting obligations.
Separately report any accounts with New Zealand sourced amounts or unclaimed super.
If you have no unclaimed money, lost member accounts or inactive low-balance accounts to report and pay, you're required to advise us of this by lodging a non-lodgment advice.
If exceptional or unforeseen circumstances impact your ability to lodge or pay by a due date, you can request a deferral of your reporting obligations prior to the due date.
For more information on how successor fund transfers (SFT) and intra fund transfers (IFT) impact unclaimed super money and lost member reporting, see Successor and intra-fund transfer reporting.