---
title: "Stapled Super and New Employees - Sapience Financial"
description: "Unless the employee actively chooses to change super funds, the fund they currently have will be the one that follows them as they move between employers."
url: "https://sapience.com.au/resources/small-business-alerts/stapled-super"
date: "2026-05-31T20:35:18+00:00"
language: "en-GB"
---

#  Small Business Alerts

##  Stapled Super and New Employees

- [ super ](https://sapience.com.au/all-tags/super)
- [ small business ](https://sapience.com.au/all-tags/small-business)
- [ SME News ](https://sapience.com.au/all-tags/sme-news)
- [ business news ](https://sapience.com.au/all-tags/business-news)
- [ SME News Alert ](https://sapience.com.au/all-tags/sme-news-alert)
- [ small business news ](https://sapience.com.au/all-tags/small-business-news)

#### What is a Stapled Super Fund?

![](https://sapience.com.au/images/blog/news/small-business-news-updates-sapience-financial.svg)

- From **1 November 2021**, employees starting a new job will have the super fund used at their former employer 'Stapled' to them ie: it will follow them around to their next employer.

The intention behind this legislation is to prevent employees from ending up with 6 different super funds all with 2-3 years worth of contributions charging fees that end up eating away their hopes of a comfortable retirement.

Unless the employee actively chooses to change super funds, the fund they currently have will be the one that follows them as they move between different employers. This makes it really important that you check your super fund performance and avoid picking a dud – otherwise, you could be “stapled” to this loser for your whole life.

**Implications for Employers**

So what does an employer need to do?

- You need to give your employee a Super Choice form as part of their onboarding.
- If the employee doesn’t nominate a fund, you need to request the employee’s “stapled fund” from the ATO.
- If the ATO does identify a 'stapled fund' you must pay to that fund.
- If the ATO can’t locate a 'stapled fund' of your new employee, you will need to set up and contribute to your default fund as usual.
- If the employee later nominates a new Super fund of choice, you can contribute to that one.

**How Do Employers Search For Stapled Super Funds?**

If the employee doesn’t nominate a fund, you’ll need to search with the ATO for a “stapled” fund through your [ATO Online Services](https://www.ato.gov.au/general/online-services/businesses/) portal.

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