Theprivacy of clients within superannuation funds is under threat as trustees of super funds will be legally forced to share confidential information regarding clients’ accounts.
Under recently released family law legislation and using a ‘Form Six’ document in conjunction with a Superannuation Information Form, any person holding the relevant details can receive comprehensive information about a superannuation interest, from attaining the account balance to finding details of recent transfers and benefits.
Trustees may not withhold the information, with the legislation ruling that if the appropriate forms are in place, they must provide the information. The law also restricts them from notifying clients of the enquiry with the legislation stating “if the application is received from a person other than the member you must not inform the member that the application has been received”.
A spokesperson from theBT Financial Groupsays family law legislation overrides all other existing state or Commonwealth legislation and as such, corresponding privacy rules are effectively void.
BT head of technical Kevin Smith agrees that while there are some privacy concerns which people are picking up on, the information is not necessarily that easy to access, with the form requesting the supply of specific information. However, it is understood that these requests are few in number.
To access the information of a super account, the third party need only know the name of the superannuation plan of which the person is a member, their full name and date of birth. To be deemed eligible, the applicant must either be the member, the spouse of the member or controversially, any person who intends to enter into a superannuation agreement with the member.
However, any person who makes a false statement in either of the declarations may be subject to a penalty of up to 12 months imprisonment.
“If we look at the overall system, it’s much fairer than it was previously, but there are some privacy issues,” Smith says.
