WHEN a website calls itself www.findmysuper.com it is fairly obvious what the site aims to do.
This is the domain name and URL for Australia’s first Internet site devoted to helping people locate lost superannuation accounts.
The site is designed to be used by people who have changed jobs or changed addresses and have lost track of their superannuation fund or their fund has lost track of them.
The site is simple and works like most things on the Internet by clicking search facility buttons that allow you access to databases.
Tapping into the ATO’s centralised database sources the required information; matches are then reported to the www.findmysuper.com which passes that information to the user.
The aim of the site is to help usersaccess the superannuation tied up in a variety of funds.
The ATO runs a service that enables people, via a hotline, to discover what superannuation arrangements have been reported on their behalf. All people are required to provide is a tax file number and the ATO will advise the number of funds that are in the inquirer’s name.
It will not stipulate the amount of money in the funds. This is where findmysuper sees its niche.
Rather than wasting time on hold, users of the site can key in the details and walk away from the computer, leaving the webmasters to do the searches.
According to latest estimates, there is about $4.5 billion unclaimed at the ATO.
