Check your Super Policy for Unwanted Insurances

A recent twist has seen a number of superannuation policies include all sorts of personal insurance of the type you see advertised on the TV in the afternoon.
My collegues have found that they are being charged $80 plus per month from their super contributions for Accident Insurance and Total Disability, Death Cover, Income Protection, etc without even requesting it. All the people in this workplace have been affected and there are four different Super funds including super trusts. The trust funds I wondered about but it was pointed out that it does guarantee an income stream even if it is just recycling money and it is safer than the share market at the moment.

This is applied to the 9% employor contributions so do not think you are not affected by this because you are not contributing yourself.

Apparently letters were sent out full of the glossy brochures that we all just glance at and throw away. The twist is that it was an offer for all this extra insurance and you got it automativcally unless you wrote back requesting to remove it. Now to make it even more interesting they also wrote to your employer asking for an employment classification because this is important information they needed to invoke the policy. They weren't really expecting a response from you and most employers did not respond as well so the result is you probably have been entered into their system at their highest risk profession regardless of the type of work you do. Our office staff were classified as dark blue collar workers and will not be able to recover the extra premiums. Forget about what you have already paid into this as their response is you should have read your mail.

I have written to the ACCC and was referred to the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal and both parties are powerless to do anything as there is no existing law to prevent this happening.

Well it looks like they have found a way to get their hands on your retirement savings so if you do nothing or actually like the comfort of this type of protection then you will be paying the premiums.

For me next time I open a cereal pack I am going to read the fine print on the box in case I have entered into an agreement or given away all my posesions by opening the pack. Oh yeah I will be reading those glossy brochures in future even though I hate doing it for protection from this type of predatory action.

You could always roll your super into another fund with a new set of conditions.

Quite true but going by my workplace (120 employees) I think there are a lot of people out there that are not even aware of it. This all happened around June/July and people have not got their statements yet.

I copped the same thing in my super fund. Like everybody else i did nothing. I only found out about it because enough people in my fund were switched on enough to pick it up and complain. The fund then issued a letter saying they will only sign you up for the insurance if you request it and will reverse any deductions that have already been made. Make sure you thoroughly read anything they send you and don't throw it out till you are happy you understand why they sent you a letter.