KiwiSaver providers will be the beneficiaries if New Zealanders decide to bring home even a proportion of the estimated $5 billion they have locked away in Australian superannuation schemes.
New Zealand approved the legislation to allow transfers between the two countries in September 2010 but it took until early last monthfor Australia to approve its side of the deal.
Polson Higgs wealth management adviser Jared Campbell said there was a total $21 billion of ''lost super'' in Australia, with a considerable amount of that belonging to New Zealanders.
Often, Kiwis had gone to Australia for some OE and had worked in several jobs, and were put into a new super scheme on every job.
On returning home, many Kiwis had forgotten about the super because, in some cases, it was not a large amount of money or New Zealanders were not aware of the situation.
That money was identified as ''lost super'', money the Australian Tax Office could not find an owner for, he said.
''If there has been no contribution for five years, the super is assigned as lost. New Zealanders go over for a couple of years to Australia and move around a lot so it can be not a large amount of money.''
Now, there was an opportunity for New Zealanders to recover their money and bring it home, Mr Campbell said.
Mr Campbell, who had worked in Australia, found his Australian tax number while going through some old files. He was likely to bring his money home.
New Zealanders who had worked and lived in Australia for a significant amount of time could have around $500,000 in Australian schemes.
Those people faced a different set of issues, including tax rates and investment allocations, he said. In New Zealand, superannuation funds were mainly taxed at the PIE (portfolio investment entity) rate of 28%.
In Australia, the tax rate on super schemes was 15%. In Australia, there was a capital gains tax of 10% on all realised capital gains.
Also, with the Australian super, while available at 60, the person had to be completely retired to gain access to it. If New Zealanders brought the money back, the funds had to go into a KiwiSaver-style retirement fund.
There were plenty of issues to think about before any decision was made, Mr Campbell said.
Asked whether he though New Zealanders would opt to bring the money home, Mr Campbell said it depended on how much was in the various super schemes.
''If it's `nuisance value' from two or three years of work, I think people will bring it home. If there has 10 or 20 years of work, those people will need to think carefully.''
ASB wealth and insurance executive manager Blair Turnbull said the ASB KiwiSaver was on track to handle customer requests from today after working on the project since December last year.
Some New Zealanders would be delayed because they lacked confirmation of where their superannuation actually was in Australia and their Australia tax file number.
''Australia has had compulsory retirement savings schemes for decades and their system is different to ours.''
There were some simple things people could do to solve their lost retirement savings, he said.
''Start by going through any old paper work and have a look to see what information is there. If that doesn't shed some light, contact any previous Australian employers.''
Alternatively, they could use the Australian Taxation Office website to check for any lost accounts, Mr Turnbull said.
The ASB would not charge a fee to import Australian retirement savings into KiwiSaver because seeing members' retirement savings grow was a goal.
However, Australian super would not appear in a KiwiSaver account overnight.
Under the agreement with Australian providers, they had 30 days to process transfer requests once they received completed documentation and supporting evidence, Mr Turnbull said.
At a glance
• From today, Kiwis can apply to transfer money in Australian superannuation schemes to their KiwiSaver scheme.
• Home country laws will apply to the transferred money.
• Retirement savings transferred from Australia into a New Zealand KiwiSaver scheme can be withdrawn when members reach the age of 60 of if they meet certain criteria.
• KiwiSaver savings transferred to Australian schemes can be withdrawn when members turn 65.
• On the web: findmysuper.com.au
