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June 17, 2025 14 mins

From finding unclaimed money to benefiting from financial advice, there’s plenty of upside to taking a curious approach to super.

On this episode of the Friends With Money podcast, Money’s Tom Watson is joined by Sarah Forman, chief retirement officer at Team Super, to discuss the benefits of taking an active interest in super (and how to get started).

00:00 Introduction

01:27 Three things every super member should know

04:02 Insurance and superannuation

05:32 Practical tips for managing super

08:01 The role of financial advice

10:46 Making superannuation relatable

13:03 Conclusion

#friendswithmoney #tomwatson #sarahforman #superannuation

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*This podcast is proudly brought to you by Team Super. Sarah Forman is the Chief Retirement Officer of Team Super.

Issued by Team Super Pty Ltd ABN 70 003 566 989 AFS licence 246864 as Trustee for the Team Superannuation Fund ABN 16 457 520 308. Any financial advice in this podcast does not take into account your financial situation, needs or objectives. Before acting, consider if the information is right for your needs and circumstances and read the relevant Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) at teamsuper.com. The Target Market Determinations for our financial products can be found at teamsuper.com/tmd. Financial planning services are provided by Team Super Financial Advice a trading name of Team Super Services Pty Ltd ABN 49 051 315 014 AFS licence 502700 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Team Super Pty Ltd.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Friends with Money podcast, brought to you
by Money Magazine, creating financial freedom for Australians since nineteen
ninety nine.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hello and thanks for joining us for another episode of
Friends with Money, money Magazine's podcast to help you earn, save,
and achieve your financial goals. My name is Tom Watson,
ac GRS here at Money Magazine, and as always, it
is a pleasure to be with you. Let's face it,
for many Australians, superannuation is often cast into the let's
worry about it later pile of life admin It tends

(00:36):
to get the same treatment as assignments at school and
UNI did you know? Sure it's there, but is it
really worth much thought until the very last moment? The
thing is, And I'm sure some listeners will fully agree
with me. I always did better on my assignments when
I started earlier raere as I was when I put
a little bit of legwork in along the way, and

(00:56):
as I'm sure we'll get into today, the same can
be true for soup or a little bit of curiosity
might just pay off over the long run. Right enough blathering,
It is a time to introduce today's guests, and I'm
very plea say that joining us today on the podcast
is a chief retirement officer and a team super Sarah Foreman. Sarah,
welcome to Friends with Money.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Thanks Tom. Great great to be here today and a
great topic to talk about, helping people learn nudging them
to be a little bit more curious about their superannuation.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Well, Sarah, I want to dive right in today, so
to sign us off, how can people, as you said,
be a little bit more curious when it comes to
their superannuation? And I guess in your opinion, why should
they be as well?

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yeah, Look, for many people, their superannuation is likely to
be either their biggest asset at the cross their lifetime
or their second biggest after a property, so it's really
important to be connected with it. There's three simple things
that I would probably recommend every Australian with superannuation should know,
and the first of those is where your super is,

(01:57):
who's managing that money for you, how many accounts that
you have and what sort of fees are you paying
for that fund? And while that seems really basic, if
you started there, you're probably already in a better spot
than millions of Australians who are sitting with unclaimed money
today linked to their superannuation savings and that money I

(02:20):
think in twenty twenty four there was around seventeen billion
dollars in lost super superannuation that was being held by
super funds because they've lost contact with the member or
it's sitting with the ATO. And you could do a
search through the myguv app if you've linked the ATO
to your MyGov app to see if you are one
of those movies Australians with some unclaimed super.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
I almost want to stop the recording right now to
go and have a look. You've piqued my interest, Sarah,
but It'll have to wait until where over and I'll
go have a look at our listeners. Do it now,
or maybe listen to the podcast and then go do
it actually. Yeah, so Sarah, moving on a little bit,
what are some of the factors that are likely to
have I guess the biggest impact on people super.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
Then, look, it's interesting the way super is designed is
to make sure that it's a safe place for all
those people that are quite disconnected with their super. So
if you were to do nothing, your super will just
roll on as it's designed, and your employer will make contributions,
those will be added to your balance, and even in

(03:25):
many products, your fund over your lifetime will make some
light stage adjustments to how it's invested to ensure that
it's getting de risked as you get closer to retirement.
And we've just been through some volatile times in markets,
and for many people, as you're closer to retirement age,
you don't really want to be invested in some of
the asset classes that are highly volatile if you don't

(03:48):
think you've got a really long timeline for markets to recover.
So your superfund and many super funds will likely where
you're not actively engaging with your super, they will be
adjusting how your super is invested over your life stage.
But there are implications to things like insurance if you
take or do nothing approach. Many super funds provide a

(04:10):
level of automatic cover for things like total permanent disability,
and you pay for that insurance through your super and
for many you do fault into that cover when you
join the plan. Everyone's needs for insurance will change over
their lifetime based on their financial needs, so understanding what
cover you're paying for and checking if you have other

(04:30):
policies outside of super through your employer will also help
ensure that you're not doubling up as that may cost
your superbalance. Accessing insurance through super can be really cost
effective way few to future proof your future and ensure
that you will have income in the event that you
stop working due to an illness or some form of

(04:51):
injury as but making sure you know about what insurance
you're paying for is important because there's many instances where
that is reduce in your superbalance.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
It's funny that you mentioned that, Sarah, as a process
I've literally just gone through in the last couple of months.
I decided, you know, to armed out of super in
sorry in during my super in my twenties. But now
that I'm in my thirties and life has changed, I
decided that I definitely need to get back in. And
I've got to say I found the process a lot
more simple than I thought it was going to be,

(05:22):
and my fund was very helpful in terms of guiding
me through that. So yes, something important maybe for people
of people to think about as well. You've given us
one very practical tip already, which is to go and
check to see if we have any unclaimed super. But
tell us, Sarah, what are some of the I guess

(05:43):
other immediate stamps that people can take in order to
build a better understanding of their superannuation.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yeah. Look, most super funds are ready and willing to
help guide and educate members on their super and the
role it can play in their financial future. They will
help translate some of the common technical language that is
a real barrier to people connecting with their super. I
think we all struggle with the term non concessional contribution

(06:09):
caps and try and understand what that really means. And
by the way, it just references the level of super
you can contribute from your pretax salary. Once you've nailed
down sort of those basic three things I referenced earlier,
you can really start to turn your attention to some
of the ways you can maximize your SUPER. Making extra

(06:29):
contributions by whatever means makes sense to you is a
great way to take extra control over your financial future,
and over time, the impact of that can be quite material.
And so you can be contributing from your pretax salary
within certain caps, or once you've been paid and you've
lived at the month and you feel you've got a
little buffer, you could contribute out of your after tax

(06:52):
salary as well, and the compounding benefits of that can
be quite significant over time. Compounding meaning that year on year,
having that money invested in the growth it will achieve
each year and builds on itself, can be quite impactful
over your working lifetime. The next thing probably is just
reviewing your insurances, especially if your personal life and circumstances

(07:13):
have changed. Many people don't realize the superin insurance implications
around getting married or if unfortunately that leads to separation
and divorce, having children, or even buying a house. Consider
the role of financial advice to map out a financial
plan tailored to your personal circumstances, to help you reach
any goals that you've got for the future, for life

(07:35):
after work, and in really importantly just checking in on
these key elements at different points in your life to
make sure that everything's still on track. Talk to your
fund they can always help you in all of these
areas well.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
I'd love to dig into that side of things a
little bit more than for a moment, Ben Sarah, because
I feel like one of the areas of uncertainty that
a lot of people have when it comes to the
sup annuation is is around financial advice. To what role
does financial advice play in super look.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
I am a huge advocate for financial advice. I am
not a financial advisor myself, but I've worked around financial
advisors for a large part of my career and I've
seen firsthand the real value and positive change they bring
to people's lives. Most super funds will offer some form
of advice, and without getting into the technicalities, there are

(08:28):
simple general forms of advice all the way to sort
of more comprehensive whole of life personal advice offers. At
the general advice end, you can access information about financial products,
but if you want to talk about what is the
best choice for your situation, then that starts to move
into personal advice. A number of funds will offer personal

(08:51):
advice about your super with them at no additional charge,
and that is a great place to start your financial
advice journey. For many people, it's more about knowing how
can I even access financial advice, and then trusting your
fund to help guide you down the advice path that's
right for you. You can receive financial advice from many sources,

(09:15):
but I would advocate that you get it from a professional,
accredited financial advisor who has obligations to always be acting
in your best interest in the advice that they give.
And while I could provide lots of statistics to you
around that support the value of Australians receiving financial advice,

(09:35):
and those statistics are both financial and emotional. That Australians
they get better retirement outcomes, they get high balances, but
they also feel more confident about their future and they
almost have a sense of peace of mind as they
are on that journey to retirement, knowing that they feel
informed and confident about what is to come ahead. For

(09:56):
many with financial advice, is it actually about trying to
take that first step. What we find is that the
members that have an advisor in their corner feel the
retirement road ahead for them is sort of a shared
experience and they've got a trusted guide there to help
them navigate a lot of the complexity that will come
as you actually move into retirement, which is the entire

(10:19):
purpose of Superannuation.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
I mentioned before on the show that I guess I've
become a much more engaged a super member over the
last five years or so. I'm very much a check
in every month's type of guy. Now I know full
well that a lot of my mates who are in
their early and mid thirties are pretty disengaged though, probably
because retirement still seems like and I guess it's a

(10:45):
long way off for them. So Sarah, with this in mind,
how can people, I guess make SUPER more relatable?

Speaker 3 (10:52):
And look, I don't think your mates are alone. I
think if we spoke to some psychologists they would probably
affirm that it is actually really challenging for people to
envisage their future self. And so with something like superannuation
and planning for retirement, we're trying to encourage people to
think about their future self and that future can be
quite a way Often that is actually quite challenging. But

(11:14):
funds try to help you do that with a range
of tools that are looking to model out the super
you've got today into what sort of lifestyle that may
afford for you in retirement, so that you can translate
that back to what actions could I take today to
change that outcome? And that could be the level of

(11:35):
contribution you're making. It could be the ambition of what
age you think you're going to retire out. It could
be checking in on how comfortable you are taking in
on volatility around how your super is invested to achieve
different growth levels. The reality is that retirement is deeply
personal and it's a process that really links to individuals'

(11:57):
goals and objectives. And while super funds play chriscial role
in this for many, we're not the only way in
which an individual will secure the financial future that they
need for retirement. For example, there's absolutely a role for
the age pension, especially as we continue to live longer,
and of course many people have assets outside of super

(12:18):
The main thing is that super funds have an intrinsic
mandate to help members achieve a great retirement outcome, and
part of how funds do that is by providing tools, resources, education,
and financial advice on what that could look like. And
this is why being super curious can really pay off,

(12:39):
because it helps you form a better understanding and relationship
with your super fund. In reality, super funds want to
partner with you for life. They can support you through
your working life and the accumulation of your super into
retirement and living in retirement. And so that's why it's
important that you get involved be QUE and start caring

(13:01):
about that relationship.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
Well, I'm sure many of our listeners today will definitely
be a bit more curious about every thing, from you know,
unclaim super to their insurance settings to you know, perhaps
even making a concessional contribution or another type of contribution
to the sub And I'm sure we could keep talking
all day about the topic as one that well I
think everyone knows I love, but we are rapidly running

(13:26):
out of time unfortunately, So Sarah, thank you so much
for joining us, for answering some of the questions that
I know people often have with Super. You know, it's
been great to get your insights and it's been a
real pleasure having you on.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
Thank you, Tom, and thanks for your curiosity.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
That's it for this episode of the Friends with Money podcast,
but don't forget to jump on our website moneymag dot
com dot Au for your daily dose of financial news.
We can go grab yourself a copy of the lad's
edition of Money Magazine in all good news agents. As always,
Friends of Money will be right back in your podcast
feed next week, but until then, my name is Tom Watson. Goodbye, fronapp.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
Thanks for listening to the Friends with Money podcast. For credible,
independent and easy to understand financial commentary, visit moneymag dot
com dot Au. Please remember that the views and opinions
expressed in this podcast are general in nature, and further
independent advice and research based on your personal circumstances should

(14:23):
be sought before making an investment decision.
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