Transferring your funds from one Authorised Superannuation Fund (ASF) to another in Papua New Guinea or merging two separate accounts in your current ASF, typically involves a few steps and requires compliance with the regulations set forth under the Superannuation (General Provisions) Act 2000. We have put together a quick guide to help you with transferring your Superannuation funds and merging your accounts.
Why you should transfer your savings or merge your accounts?
There are several benefits that you can receive if you transfer your savings from your previous ASF to your new one, or merge the multiple accounts that you may have with one ASF. Three of the major benefits are:
- Continuation of your Housing Advance eligibility: ASFs in PNG require a Member to be contributing for more than five years before they are eligible to withdraw their employee contributions for use as a Housing Advance. By transferring your savings or merging your accounts, you are also transferring or merging your years of contribution which will allow you to access your Housing Advance sooner than if you didn’t.
- Ease of management: By transferring or merging, you can keep all your retirement savings conveniently in one account which can be helpful when monitoring the growth of your savings. It will also significantly reduce any potential inconvenience you may face when you are ready to retire and withdraw your savings.
- Taxation benefit: Upon exiting the fund, the total years of your employment and savings contribution also factors in to the tax applied on your final benefit payment. By merging your accounts all the accumulated years of employment at each job you have held are also combined.
How to transfer your savings to your new Superannuation fund?
In most instances, you will need to transfer your Superannuation savings from one ASF to another when you have started a new job with an Employer that contributes to a different ASF than your previous Employer. Before transferring ASFs or merging multiple accounts with the same ASF, its also important to check that all your contributions made by your employer are up to date.
Below are a few basic steps that you will need to complete:
- Your Employer will provide you with a New Member Form once you have started with the company or after three months of employment. Once this form is filled out, your Employer should soon begin remitting contributions to your new ASF.
- Once your new account is active and you are contributing to your new ASF, you may then fill out the Separation Authority Form (or similar form) provided by your old ASF, to begin the transfer process.
- The Separation Authority Form will require you to provide a letter confirming your employment/resignation from your previous and current Employers, two recent payslips, a six-month bank statement of your salary and wages account, an account statement from your previous ASF, and a valid form of ID. Note that additional documents may be required depending on individual circumstances.
- Once you have completed and submitted your Separation Authority Form, your previous and new ASF will work together to transfer your retirement savings over to your new ASF. The transfer process may take some time to complete, and the specific duration can vary depending on the Superannuation Funds involved. It's advisable to check with both the current and new Super funds regarding the expected processing time.
- Once the transfer is completed, you should receive confirmation from both your previous and new ASFs. The confirmation should include details about the transferred amount and the updated balance in your new Superfund. It is important to ensure that you have provided your new ASF with your updated contact and beneficiary details so that they can contact you to give this confirmation.
- After that, all you have to do is monitor your Superannuation account, keep your contact and beneficiaries information up to date, and watch your savings grow over the long-term.
How to merge multiple superannuation accounts?
Sometimes when joining a new ASF, Members will notice that they have another account with that ASF that they had opened when employed by another previous Employer. In cases like these, you are encouraged to and can apply to merge these two accounts. Before merging multiple accounts with the same ASF, its also important to check that all your contributions made by your previous employer are up to date.
Below are a few basic steps that you will need to complete:
- Members who have discovered that they have multiple accounts with the same ASF can fill out a Merge of Accounts Form to begin the merging process.
- The Merge of Accounts Form will require you to provide a letter confirming your employment/resignation from your previous Employer, a completed Member Detail Update Form (or similar form) two recent payslips, an account statement from your ASF, and a valid form of ID. Note that additional documents may be required depending on individual circumstances.
- Once you have filled out the Merge of Accounts Form and attached your additional required documents, you will need to have the form signed off by the authorised signatory from the human resources division of your current Employer before submitting the form and documents to your ASF.
- Once the merge of accounts is completed, you should receive confirmation from your ASF including your updated balance. It is important to ensure that you have provided your new ASF with your updated contact and beneficiary details so that they can contact you to give this confirmation.
- After that, all you have to do is monitor your superannuation account and watch your savings grow over the long-term.
