The Australian Preservation Fund (APF) is to run a promotional campaign this spring, together with an as yet unnamed national supermarket chain, to restore lost members’ funds.
The campaign, which will cost $1 million, will feature traditional media advertising, as well as giveaways such as fridge magnets.
APF executive officer David Haynes says: “Our previous campaign was about awareness and restored $88 million of members’ lost funds to their active superannuation accounts. The board of APF has now approved a bigger campaign to get more lost accounts back to members.”
APF’s sole purpose is to act as a holding fund for super funds that have lost track of their members. Currently, 16 superannuation funds provide details to APF which in turn works closely with the Australian Taxation Office search facilities. APF has 1.2 million lost members with $400 million in assets.
“We have been successful in reuniting funds, but we feel we should speed up the process with this new campaign,” Haynes says. “A lot of superannuation funds do nothing about trying to track lost members, but APF is a fund dedicated to re-uniting people with their money.”
The average amounts that are transferred are about $400, he says. “Our aim is for the fund to grow smaller, but unfortunately, we keep getting more members with lost funds.”
