Protecting Your Super
Changes to all super funds
There have been some superannuation legislative changes that may impact your Cruelty Free Super account. From 1 July 2019, the Government's Protecting Your Super (PYS) legislation takes effect:
- a.If your balance is below $6,000, the total of administration fees, investment fees, and indirect costs charged on your account will be capped at 3% per annum.
- b.If your account has not received an eligibile contribution for 16 consecutive months, any insurance cover associated with your account will be cancelled.An eligible contribution includes Superannuation Guarantee contributions, additional employer contributions, personal contributions (including voluntary contributions and contributions made by a spouse), rollovers and automatic transfers from other funds. It does not include Government co-contributions or the low income super tax offset.We’ll continue to monitor account activity and send you a notification if your account has not received an eligible contribution for 9, 12 and 15 months to ensure you’re aware of the options for retaining cover.
- c.If your account balance is below $6,000 and it has been inactive for 16 consecutive months, we are required to transfer your account balance to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to hold on your behalf.Your account is considered inactive if you have not made a contribution, rollover, or automatic transfer from another fund, changed your insurance cover, made or amended a binding beneficiary nomination, or provided written notice to us that you do not wish your account to be transferred despite inactivity.We’ll continue to monitor account activity and send you a notification prior to transferring your account balance to the ATO to ensure you’re aware of the options for retaining your account with us.
Staying with Cruelty Free Super
Staying with Cruelty Free Super ensures your money continues to be invested in line with our ethical investment screens.
We have 16 negative investment screen categories:
- animal testing
- live animal export
- animal food and products
- animals in sport and entertainment
- fossil fuels
- gambling
- tobacco
- weapons
- nuclear energy
- environmental damage
- chemicals of concerns
- mandatory detention of asylum seekers and for-profit prisons
- alcohol
- human/labour rights
- predatory lending
- controversial activities
We also apply a positive screen - seeking investment in companies that have been identified as a “vegan hero”. These are companies that are known to provide a vegan or cruelty free alternative to products or services that typically exploit animals.
See our page on ethical investment screens for more detail.
What happens to inactive accounts?
If you don’t take any action to make your account active, your account balance will be transferred to the ATO to hold on your behalf and any insurance you hold will be cancelled.
The ATO has 28 days after receiving your account balance to reunite you with your money via an active superannuation account in your name, so long as the active account will hold a balance of greater than $6,000. If the ATO can’t locate an active super account for you, it will continue to hold on to your account balance on your behalf.
More information
How does the fee cap on low-balance accounts work?
If the balance of your Cruelty Free Super account is less than $6,000, from 1 July 2019 you won’t pay more than 3% p.a. in administration fees, investment fees and indirect costs.
We’ll assess your balance at the end of each financial year (or if you leave us, when you exit) and if you’ve paid more than 3% p.a. in fees and costs on an account with a balance of less than $6,000, you’ll be refunded the difference.
What does it mean for my insurance cover if my account becomes inactive?
We’re unable to provide insurance through super if your account has not received an eligible contribution for 16 consecutive months, unless you tell us that you wish to keep your cover.
An eligible contribution includes Superannuation Guarantee contributions, additional employer contributions, personal contributions (including voluntary contributions and contributions made by a spouse), rollovers and automatic transfers from other funds. It does not include Government co-contributions or the low income super tax offset.
We’ll let you know that your insurance cover might be cancelled before taking any action. If you want to keep your insurance cover, you can let us know by completing our online insurance declaration.
By electing to keep your insurance cover, you’re choosing to keep all of your current insurance cover. If you only want to keep some of your current insurance cover, please contact us on 1300 096 631 or email us at hello@www.crueltyfreesuper.com.au to discuss which parts of your cover you wish to amend or cancel.
Regular contributions or transfers into your account will also keep your account active and your insurance policy in place, provided there are sufficient funds in your super account to pay the insurance premiums.
What will happen if my inactive, low balance super account is transferred to the ATO?
If your Cruelty Free Super account balance is less than $6,000 on 30 June or 31 December each year, and your account is classified as inactive, we’re now required to transfer your account balance to the ATO.
This will occur whether or not your balance has increased above $6,000 between the date of classification and the date of transfer due to investment returns, investment credits and/or refunds.
We’ll regularly check whether your account meets the inactive low balance criteria. We’ll let you know if you are impacted before taking any action.
If you’re impacted and you don’t want your inactive low-balance account sent to the ATO, you must notify us that you want to keep your Cruelty Free Super account open before the advised response date.
If we don’t hear from you by the response date, your Cruelty Free Super account will be closed, any the money in your account will be transferred to the ATO. Closing your account also means that any insurance cover held through the account will cease.
The ATO has 28 days after receiving your account balance to reunite you with your money via an active superannuation account in your name, so long as the active account will hold a balance of greater than $6,000. If the ATO can’t locate an active super account for you, it will continue to hold on to your account balance on your behalf.
If you want your money returned, you’ll need to contact the ATO directly. You will be able to view your account balance and find more information on the ATO website.