Calculator
Superannuation Consolidation Calculator
Superannuation Consolidation Calculator
First Account (e.g. current main fund)
Second Account (lost or forgotten fund)
Exit fees on super have been banned since 1 July 2019 and most funds charge $0 to roll over. Closing an account usually cancels its default death and TPD insurance — arrange replacement cover first if you need it. Use each fund's published investment fee plus indirect costs as "total fees".
Extra Balance From Consolidating
$13,703.44
Consolidation Verdict
Keeping both accounts projects $214,623.81 in 20 years; rolling them into one projects $228,327.25 — an extra $13,703.44 (6.4%). Year-one costs drop by $99. Closing the second account also stops $320 of annual premiums. Consolidating meaningfully improves the outcome.
*Projects balances using constant fee and return assumptions; actual fund returns vary year to year. Exit fees are banned but insurance cover is usually cancelled when an account closes. Check YourSuper and each fund's PDS before acting. Educational only, not financial advice.
Every Duplicate Account Is a Fee You Pay Twice
Job-hopping Australians accumulate super the way drawers accumulate keys: one account per employer, several forgotten, each quietly charging administration and investment fees. The ATO holds billions in lost and unclaimed super, and even accounts you know about can be costing you twice — two sets of admin fees, two insurance premiums, two underperforming investment options. Consolidating into a single fund means every dollar sits in your best-chosen strategy, compounding once instead of being nibbled in parallel. The case for consolidation has strengthened over time. Exit fees are banned outright since July 2019, rollovers between APRA-regulated funds typically process within about a week through myGov, and the government's YourSuper comparison tool ranks funds on fees and performance to make the 'keeper' choice easier. The main counterweight is insurance: closing an account usually cancels its default death and total-permanent-disability cover, which matters if that cover was cheap, guaranteed, or hard to replace for health reasons. This calculator prices both sides of the trade — projecting one combined balance against two separately compounding accounts over your working horizon, counting the fees and premiums stopped, so the decision rests on numbers rather than nagging guilt about tidiness.
Two Compounding Paths Compared Head-to-Head
Each account projects independently: balance multiplied by one plus net return (investment return minus total fees) raised to your years-to-retirement. Keeping both accounts therefore produces the sum of two separate compound curves; consolidating produces one curve on the combined balance at the surviving fund's net return. The difference between those end points is what consolidation buys or costs you. Fees matter more than intuition suggests because they subtract from the growth rate itself — a 0.55 percentage-point fee gap compounds into thousands over decades, which is why the calculator asks for each fund's full cost including indirect costs, not just the headline administration fee. The year-one cost comparison makes the mechanics visible: fees charged on both balances plus both insurance premiums versus fees on one larger balance. Note the subtlety — consolidation is not automatically cheaper even with identical fees, because the merged balance pays the survivor's fee rate on more dollars. What makes it work is moving money out of the expensive account permanently, plus stopping duplicate insurance. If the surviving fund's net return is genuinely better, the gap widens every year; if you consolidate into the weaker performer, the projection will show a shortfall, and the honest answer is to pick the other keeper rather than abandon consolidation.
Expert Insights
Sort Insurance Before You Click Roll Over
Default death and TPD cover inside super is often the only insurance someone with health issues can get — underwritten automatically without medical checks. Close that account and the cover vanishes; applying fresh elsewhere may be declined, loaded, or exclude the condition you actually worry about. The correct sequence is: confirm the new fund offers equivalent cover, apply for it, receive written confirmation, then roll the old account over. A few weeks of overlap costs trivially little; losing insurability can cost everything.
Fees Are the Only Certain Return
Fund returns swing with markets; the fee comes off regardless. That asymmetry is why comparing total fees — investment fee plus administration plus indirect costs — beats chasing last year's best performer when choosing which account survives. A fund charging 1.4% all-in must beat a 0.85% rival by half a percent every single year just to draw level. Over twenty years those odds rarely hold, which is why high-fee legacy accounts from old employers are usually the ones to close.
Consolidate Once, Then Automate Future Accounts
Consolidation is not a once-a-decade spring clean; every new job risks spawning a new default account. After rolling over, give your chosen fund's TFN-linked details to every new employer — contributions follow the fund you nominate, not your HR department's preference. Check annually via myGov that only one account received contributions, and roll any strays across while they are still small enough that no meaningful insurance or history is lost.
Actionable Tips
- 1
Find Every Account Through myGov First
Before running numbers, log into myGov, link the ATO, and use the Super Health Check to list every superannuation account held in your name — including ones you have forgotten and any classified as lost. Capture each balance, fund name, investment option and insurance cover. Comparing real figures against this calculator's inputs takes minutes and turns a vague intention into a specific plan with named accounts.
- 2
Compare Keepers With YourSuper Before Deciding
Use the government's YourSuper tool to see how each of your candidate funds ranks on fees and long-run Test My Whole Portfolio performance against the trustee benchmark. If neither of your current funds ranks well, consider consolidating into a stronger third fund rather than merely merging mediocrity. Just re-check the insurance question for any fund you would newly join, and note some funds restrict cover until you opt in.
- 3
Time the Rollover Away From Market Extremes
Rollovers transfer cash after selling units, so a market dip during processing locks in the lower price on the closed side while the receiving side buys back at recovery. It is a modest risk over a week, but worth managing: initiate rollovers in calm markets rather than mid-crash, avoid switching immediately before known volatile events, and never use consolidation as cover for panic-driven timing decisions. The goal is moving fees down, not trading markets.
Real-World Examples
Rebecca Reclaimed Her Twenties
Rebecca, 29, found three accounts totalling $21,000 after a myGov check — two from retail jobs she barely remembered, each paying $150-plus a year in fees plus insurance premiums she had never chosen. Projecting consolidation into her lowest-fee industry fund showed roughly $19,000 extra at age 67 from fees stopped alone. She arranged replacement income-protection cover first, rolled both accounts across inside three weeks, and now redirects every new employer straight to the same fund.
David Almost Consolidated Backwards
David instinctively planned to merge his old $98,000 balance into his new employer's default fund — the newer account he saw daily. The calculator flipped the decision: his old industry fund charged 0.79% all-in against the new fund's 1.3%, and the projection showed nearly $60,000 less at retirement if he consolidated the wrong direction. He kept the industry fund, updated his employer's nomination form, and saved himself from an invisible lifetime penalty.
The Nguyens Fixed It as a Family Project
Anh and Minh ran their four combined duplicate accounts through the calculator one Saturday and found $2,100 in duplicated annual fees and premiums. Rolling into their two best-kept funds projected an additional $147,000 by Minh's retirement — more than either expected from paperwork. They set a calendar reminder to repeat the check every June, caught Anh's next job-change account within months instead of decades, and treated the first recovered fees to something memorable.
Glossary of Terms
- Consolidation (Rollover)
- Transferring one superannuation balance into another fund, closing the source account - free of exit fees since July 2019.
- Indirect Cost Ratio
- The investment fees deducted within an option's returns before reporting - often the largest hidden component of total fund costs.
- Lost Super
- An account where the fund has lost contact with the member or no contributions have arrived for an extended period - recoverable via myGov at no cost.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about this topic.
Ivy Sinclair-Wren
Financial Chaos Analyst
Ivy Sinclair-Wren is a Financial Chaos Analyst covering investing, AI, wealth psychology, and the emotional consequences of opening finance apps during market crashes. Based in Melbourne, she specializes in demystifying the Australian tax code and helping users navigate the intersection of spreadsheet logic and human irrationality.