If you have money in a super fund, you are more than likely to have some form of basic or default insurance cover through that fund. You will also be paying premiums for the cover and as a default or automatic cover, it may not be suited to your personal circumstances.

As part of measures to protect your super savings, new changes from July 2019 have required super funds to cancel insurance on inactive accounts (no contributions or rollovers in the last 16 months) unless the member elects to continue the insurance.

In addition, any inactive superannuation accounts with balances of under $6,000 will be automatically consolidated by the ATO with other accounts the member may hold, or it may be transferred to the ATO and the insurance will be cancelled.

This new regulation applies to life insurance, total and permanent disability insurance and income protection insurance that a member may have with their superannuation fund.

Another important change coming in April 2020 is the opt-in insurance option for people under 25 years of age, or people with superannuation account balances of less than $6,000.

This means that people under 25 who start a new choice or MySuper fund account will need to explicitly opt-in to be covered by insurance.

The most important thing to take away from this is if you rely on the default or automatic cover in your super fund, talk to your advisor to ensure you are still getting the coverage you require.