AustralianSuper fined $27 million over duplicate accounts. Why your old super is worth checking

First published 28 February 2025. Figures are from an Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) media release, 25-017MR, 21 February 2025.

In February 2025 the Federal Court ordered AustralianSuper to pay a $27 million penalty. The fund had failed to find and merge duplicate accounts held by its own members. The failure ran from 1 July 2013 to 31 March 2023 and affected about 90,700 people. Between them, those members lost roughly $69 million through extra administration fees, extra insurance premiums and lost investment earnings. The figures come from ASIC, the regulator that brought the case, in media release 25-017MR of 21 February 2025.

If you have ever changed jobs and let a default super account open behind you, this story is worth a few minutes of your time.

What the court found

The Federal Court found AustralianSuper did not have adequate policies, processes and systems to identify and merge multiple accounts belonging to the same member. The failure ran from 1 July 2013 to 31 March 2023. It breached section 108A of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993, the provision that requires funds to deal with duplicate member accounts.

Justice Hespe called them "systemic failings", and said it was inexcusable that the fund had no processes and systems in place to meet a specific legislative requirement. ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court said the fund had not acted in its members' best financial interests. ASIC's release states that all affected members have been remediated.

Why a second account quietly costs you

Two accounts usually means two sets of administration fees. It often means two sets of insurance premiums as well. Add the investment earnings lost on that money, and the total grows every year you don't notice it. In this case it came to roughly $69 million across about 90,700 members, per ASIC's release.

It happens easily. You start a new job, the paperwork defaults you into a new fund, and an account opens that you never look at again. Most people don't know how many accounts they hold. That is not a personal failing. The system is built in a way that lets this happen.

The part that matters if you're already in a claim

A forgotten account is not only a fee problem. It can also be where your insurance lives.

Super accounts often carry life cover, total and permanent disability (TPD) cover and sometimes income protection. TPD cover is a lump sum benefit that can apply if you are unlikely to work again in your usual field. If you stopped work because of injury or illness, cover sitting in an old account may still be relevant, depending on the policy terms and whether the cover was active when you stopped work. People checking one account sometimes have cover in another they had forgotten about.

How to check, free, in minutes

You can see every super account held in your name through myGov:

• log in to myGov and open the linked Australian Taxation Office (ATO) service
• look under the super section for all your accounts, lost super and ATO-held super
• note the insurance listed against each account, not just the balances

Before you merge or close anything

Closing a super account can cancel the insurance attached to it. Life, TPD and income protection cover can be hard or expensive to replace, especially if your health has changed since the account was opened. Insurance in super can also be switched off automatically when an account goes inactive, under rules introduced in 2019. We explain what those rules switched off in if your super account went quiet, your insurance may have switched off.

So the order matters. Check the cover in each account first, then decide what to do with the accounts. Consolidating can stop the duplicate fees. Whether it is the right move depends on what cover sits inside each account, and that is worth knowing before anything is closed.

If you want to talk any of this through, we'll explain which doors exist for your situation and, if you want, introduce you to a firm on our panel. It costs you nothing.

Sources

• ASIC media release 25-017MR, "AustralianSuper fined $27 million after ASIC investigation into failing to merge multiple superannuation accounts", 21 February 2025.