While I have been essentially self employed for most of my working life there are occasions that it has been easier for clients to be 'put on the books' rather than have it go through the business the normal way.

I'm admittedly pretty blasé about super fund paperwork particularly for something that usually only involves a few weeks of the year. But over the last few years I have manage to accrue 6 Superfund accounts.

Today I finally got a chance to sit down and open all correspondence, and was mildly surprised to find only one had any money in it. When I looked a little more closely the reason was not the one I had assumed (that management fees had gobbled them up), rather they had all defaulted to a death insurance scheme.

As both my wife and I are self employed we are relying on investments to fund our retirement so the couple of thousand dollars involved is not a great impost but I would wager there are many Australians who are moving from various forms of casual employment who are being stitched up by this rort. I have seen some estimates that 60% of employees accept the fund of the employer and do not opt out of these deductions.

The privatisation of our pension scheme has opened what should have been a good idea to the vultures. Here is an insiders take on it;

http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/01/09/super-rat-spills-on-industry-scams-gouging-and-dirty-little-secrets/

I know Hockey was going to address some of the rorts but they were pretty soft reforms. If a political party wants my vote the next election they need to detail how they ore going to rescue superannuation from the parasites.

If you went to a supermarket and later found that your shopping basket contained items that you haven't taken, for which you were also charged without your knowledge, then surely you should be able to demand your money back, plus interest and compensation for having to carry those items you didn't want.

And if it was done intentionally, then the perpetrators should also go to jail for stealing as well as for trespassing and dumping their junk in your basket.

Same if somebody wrote you, "We have your visa-card details because you bought some apples from us last month, so unless you tell us otherwise by next week, we'll deliver a box of condoms to your door".

Outright criminal.

Superannuation should be abolished anyway and the money returned to the owners to invest themselves as they please.

Dear Yuyutsu,

The argument was that we had to privatise our pensions because governments supposedly couldn't be trusted with our money, because changing demographics were supposedly going to place an unbearable strain on our pension system, and so that 'ordinary Australians' supposedly had a chance to access the types of wealth generation that were reserved for the rich.

Much of it is a fallacy.

The recent Murray Inquiry into the financial sector did not address this however it did recommend that members retain their original choice of fund for each job unless they choose another which would go some way to mitigating the problem. It will be interesting to see if the government takes them up.
http://fsi.gov.au/files/2014/12/06_Superannuation-1_enlarge.gif

However there also needs to be a law against defaulting to an insurance product.

The finance sector in this country outstrips mining and agriculture both in size and its contribution to our GDP. The problem is most of the income is not productive rather it is being accrued through skimming our economy. It is parasitic and needs to be reined in.

Steel, being self employed as you are, I am opposed to the fact that I have to deposit workers super to the fund of their choice. It simp,y adds to the unpaid work we do.

What should happen, in my view, is that all suoer should be paid into a government managed default fund, then the employee (contributor) logs in and deposits their suoer wherever they choose, provided it is within the guidelines.

At least then there would be no such thing as lost suoer, which is currently in the hundreds of millions I believe.

Dear SteeleRedux,

It's true that governments cannot be trusted with our money, but commercial entities can be trusted even less. Neither is immune from greed.

I believe that for someone else to purchase something with your money without your consent is already unlawful, so what you need is not new laws but a good lawyer.

I think that the changes proposed by the Murray Inquiry are cosmetic and too little. Compulsory superannuation itself was immoral to begin with and ought to be scrapped.

Regarding the finance sector, sigh, it's bad but I can't see a fix that wouldn't badly hurt many innocent ordinary Australians.

We as a nation are grossly underinsured, ASIC says that only 26% of adults have adequate insurance and the average is only $80000 (considering the average mortgage is $400k plus, at least something is paid and you are less of a burden on the government.)
to all those who cant be bothered looking at their statements and how cheap insurance is and then complain about doing nothing for years. You, Yoshi would probably be the first person knocking on the insurance companies door if your partner died/disabled, demanding the automatic insurance be paid out. You cant have it both ways.

If you think insurance companies , by offering you insurance without a medical or any health check are ripping you off. Try getting insurance when you are ill.

Do you complain about your council rates and water rates? I do and get them regularly decreased as it is based on the value of your house. Many companies charge a fee, if you don't query it, why would they change?

You say you are self employed, I'm sure many of your customers just pay the going rate, without question, some do complain and get a lower price. You cant blame your business for this, yet you want to blame insurance on your apathy

If you can't see that superannuation is just a tax vehicle (it is the underlying investments that show it going up or down in value) You must have a very BAD accountant