In November 2021, new superannuation rules came into place in Australia regarding ‘stapled superannuation’. Stapled super is simply an existing super fund linked or ‘stapled’ to an employee. The intent of stapled super is to minimise the number of Australians having multiple super accounts, reducing the need for them to pay multiple sets of fees and insurance premiums which is quite costly. If, however, an employee does have several super accounts, their stapled account will be the most active account.

So, when a new employee commences employment and they don’t provide information of their super fund, an employer must undertake a search via an ATO database to see if a stapled super fund exists. If it does, the employer will pay super contributions must be paid into that fund. If there isn’t a stapled fund, employers must provide their new employees with the Superannuation Choice Form within 28 days of commencing employment and ask them if they wish to nominate a superannuation fund or pay those contributions into the workplace default super fund. This will then become the employee’s ‘stapled fund’.

Employees are still able to change funds and when they do, the new fund will become their stapled fund. When doing this, it is the employee’s responsibility to notify their employer of the details of their new super fund.