The Account That Follows You From Job to Job
Stapling means your superannuation account follows you when you change jobs. A new employer that is not given a choice of fund must ask the ATO for your stapled fund and pay into that, rather than into their own default. It solved the problem of accumulating a new account with every job, and created a quieter one: a poor fund now follows you indefinitely.
- The answer: A new employer must request your stapled fund from the ATO and pay into it, unless you nominate a fund of your own choosing.
- The trap: A stapled fund with high fees or poor performance follows you for as long as you never choose. The system no longer corrects itself by giving you a fresh default.
- The recommendation: Choose a fund deliberately once, and give the standard choice form to every new employer. Stapling is a default, not a restriction.
Where the AI summary above gets this wrong
"Under super stapling you cannot change your super fund when you change jobs."
That's surface-true. Here's what it misses:
- Stapling is a default, not a lock — You retain the right to choose a fund and can give any employer a standard choice form. Stapling only decides what happens when you do not.
- It changed the direction of the risk — Before stapling the risk was duplicate accounts and duplicate fees. After it, the risk is one mediocre account persisting for a whole career with nothing prompting a review.
01 How stapling works
When you start a job, your employer asks whether you want to choose a fund. If you do, they pay into it. If you do not, they request your stapled fund from the ATO and pay into that, and only where no stapled fund exists do they use their own default.
The stapled fund is generally the account you have held most recently, with tie-breaking rules where you hold several. It is determined from ATO records rather than from anything you tell the employer.
You retain the right to choose at any time, and the choice takes effect for contributions from that point. Past contributions stay where they were paid unless you roll them over, which is a separate action described in the consolidation guide.
Source: ATO — Choosing a super fund
02 What it fixed
Before stapling, a worker who never chose a fund accumulated a new account with each employer's default. Six jobs meant six accounts, six sets of administration fees and, frequently, six insurance premiums against a single life.
The cost of that duplication was substantial and fell hardest on people who changed jobs often — younger workers, casual workers, and workers in industries with high turnover, who are also the people with the smallest balances to absorb it.
Stapling removes that by default. Someone entering the workforce now can reach retirement with one account without ever having made a decision, which is a substantial improvement on the previous default outcome.
03 The problem it created
The corresponding cost is that a poor fund now persists. Under the old system a worker changing employers at least landed in a new default, which meant a bad early choice was diluted. Under stapling it is carried forward indefinitely.
The difference a fee level makes over a career is large and slow, which is exactly the sort of cost people do not notice. The arithmetic is worked through in the super fees post, and the worked example below applies it to a fee gap you supply.
The remedy is a single deliberate choice, made once and then checked every few years against the fund's published fees and returns. Comparing funds is covered by the regulator's own guidance rather than by anything a fund tells you about itself.
Shows: what a difference in annual fees does to a balance over the years a stapled fund would follow you, holding the investment return constant. Ignores: differences in investment return between funds, insurance premiums, contributions made along the way, and tax on earnings inside the fund.
Stapling turned a duplication problem into an inertia problem, and inertia is harder to notice. Nobody gets a letter saying their fund has been mediocre for eleven years. I would put a recurring reminder in whatever calendar you actually use, every three years, to compare the fund against two others — that is the whole maintenance requirement.
FAQ
What if I have multiple super funds?
Stapling stops new ones being created by default, but it does not merge the accounts you already have. Consolidating them is a separate action, and it is worth checking insurance cover before closing an account.
Can I still choose my own super fund?
Yes. Stapling only decides what happens when you do not choose. You can give any employer a standard choice form at any time, and contributions go to your nominated fund from that point.
How does my employer find my stapled fund?
They request it from the ATO using your tax file number, after offering you the choice of fund. Only where no stapled fund exists do they use their own default.
Sources
Regulator references
- ATO — Choosing a super fund · Australian Taxation Office · 2026Choosing a super fund, and the right to nominate where contributions are paid.Last verified: 2026-09-07
- ASIC Moneysmart — Choosing a super fund · ASIC Moneysmart · 2026How to compare super funds on fees, performance and insurance.Last verified: 2026-09-07
Calculator unit tests · the assertions this page's worked example is checked against, and their last result
Changelog
- 2026-09-07 — initial publish (new format)
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Jordan Reeves
Founder of Talk Through Wealth. A software engineer for over a decade before turning to retirement planning, Jordan built the projection engine after watching family members get fragmented, country-by-country advice that never reconciled. He writes about retirement the way the engine computes it: month-by-month, lifetime-long, and skeptical of any rule of thumb that hasn't been run through the math.