How to Consolidate Super: One Account, One Set of Fees

💸 Why multiple accounts cost more than you think🔗

Almost every fund charges two admin fees: a flat dollar amount and a percentage of your balance. The percentage barely changes when you split your money across several accounts. The flat dollar fee is charged per account, not per person, and that is the whole problem.

Rest publishes an administration fee of $1.50 a week, or $78 a year, and says the amount does not depend on your balance. That is one real example of a common structure, not a recommendation. Our own reconstruction of Rest's schedule from APRA's published data lands on the same $78 fixed component, which is a useful check that the number is what it looks like.

Now run three accounts: $38,000 in the fund you actually chose, $6,200 in one from a job you left in 2019, and $1,900 in a third you opened for a side hustle. That is $234 a year in flat admin fees on one person's money. Two of those accounts are doing nothing except paying rent. Consolidate and you save $156 a year.

You are not unusual, either. ATO data for 30 June 2026 shows roughly 4 million people hold two or more super accounts: 16% hold two, 3% hold three and 1% hold four or more. Choosing where the money should land is a separate decision, and our super fund comparator shows what each fund's published fees would cost over a working life.

🖥️ How to consolidate super in myGov, step by step🔗

You need your myGov login linked to the ATO and your tax file number. Linking takes a few minutes and one identity document.

1. Sign in to myGov and select Australian Taxation Office.
2. Select Super, then Manage, then Transfer super.
3. Choose the account you want to transfer from.
4. Choose the account you want to transfer to. This is the one you keep.
5. Check the details and confirm.

Two limits matter. The tool moves the whole balance, so a partial transfer has to go through the fund directly. And if an account is missing from the list, its fund may not allow outward transfers. Defined benefit accounts often fall into that group, usually for good reason.

What happens to your employer contributions

This is where people get caught. Since 1 July 2026 employers must pay super on each payday, and the contribution must reach your fund with enough detail to allocate it within seven business days. There is no quarterly delay left to hide in. So if you just closed the account your employer paid into, the next contribution has nowhere to land. Give payroll the new fund's name, its USI or ABN, and your member number.

If you say nothing, your employer must request your stapled fund from the ATO and pay there. Your stapled fund is generally the fund you were already with, so the money often lands somewhere sensible. Often is not always. Send the details anyway. Moving from fund A to fund B on purpose is a different job again, and how to change super funds covers what you lose on the way out.

🛡️ Check your insurance before you close anything🔗

Do this before, not after. When an account closes, the insurance inside it closes too. You cannot reopen it, and you generally cannot move group insurance from one fund to another. New cover in the fund you keep is underwritten against your health today.

1. Log in to every account and write down the cover in each: death, total and permanent disability, income protection. Note the sum insured, the premium, the waiting period and any exclusions.
2. Check whether the cover is even active. Under the Protecting Your Super rules a fund must cancel insurance after sixteen consecutive months with no contribution or rollover, unless you elected to keep it. Plenty of dormant accounts are running with no cover at all.
3. Compare what equivalent cover would cost inside super against a standalone policy.
4. Only then pick the account that survives.

That trade-off is worth understanding properly before you move. Insurance through super versus standalone cover explains what group cover does and does not do, and life insurance through super goes deeper on the mechanics. If your health has changed since you joined and the sums run to more than a few hundred dollars, talk to a licensed adviser first.

🚫 When consolidating is the wrong move🔗

Consolidate by default, unless one of these applies.

None of this is personal financial advice, just general information about which questions to ask. Rules and fees differ between funds, and a licensed adviser can look at your actual accounts, your health and your tax situation.

❓ Frequently asked questions🔗