Approximately three million Australians are estimated to be affected by the new superannuation laws coming into effect from 1 July.

Life and disability insurance policies will become invalid for superannuation accounts that hasn’t received any contributions for 16 months or more. 

“If you haven’t contributed to your super account in 16 months, you could be at risk of your account becoming inactive and, in turn, losing your insurance cover,” Industry Super Australia (ISA) chief executive Bernie Dean said. 

“This may happen to people who take a long period of leave off work, such as a new parent looking after their newborn, or if you’ve taken time off to study or go travelling,” Mr Dean added. 

Those with inactive accounts will need to contact their super funds to request to keep their policies. 

This is part of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Protecting Your Superannuation Package) Bill 2018, which aims to protect Australian’s superannuation savings from undue erosion by fees and insurance premiums. 

People with less than $6,000 in their super account will also be affected from 1 July. 

However, more than half of Australians aren’t aware of these changes, according to a data research firm, YouGov. 

“The intent of the legislation was not to have fees eroding balances unintentionally, but what we do know is that about four in 10 – 38 per cent – have a super account that hasn’t received any contribution in the last 16 months,” Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) chief executive Dr Martin Fahy said. 

“We estimate that as many as 3 million Australians could be impacted by these changes to super on 1 July and the research that we’ve done shows that more than half of Australians, 53 per cent, are unaware of the changes that are going to happen to their life insurance cover on that date,” Dr Fahy added.