How to Check if You Have TPD Cover in Your Super

Why most Australians don't know they have TPD

Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) cover is one of the most quietly owned insurance policies in Australia. Most working adults have some level of it, and most have no idea. That's because TPD is usually bundled inside superannuation — your super fund holds a group insurance policy with an insurer, and a portion of your account balance pays the premium every month. You don't sign anything. You don't get a big welcome pack. It just sits there.

For years, the default setting on most super funds was to switch TPD cover on automatically when you joined, unless you actively opted out. Reforms under the Protecting Your Super package in 2019 tightened this — members under 25, or with balances under $6,000, now generally need to opt in. But if you're over 25 with a reasonable account balance, the odds are very good that you already hold TPD cover inside at least one of your super funds.

The problem is the "silent" nature of it. Because the premium is deducted from your super, not your bank account, it rarely appears on a radar. People change jobs, collect new super accounts, lose track of old ones, and never find out that every one of those accounts may have quietly carried its own TPD policy. When a serious injury or illness hits, knowing what you hold is the first and most important step.

The 4-step check

Checking your TPD cover doesn't require a financial adviser, a lawyer, or a lot of time. Most people can complete the full check in a single afternoon. Here are the four steps, in the order that works best.

Step 1: Log in to each super fund's member portal

Every major super fund has a member portal or app. Log in, and look for a section called "Insurance", "Cover", "My Insurance" or "Insurance in Super". You're looking for three things: whether TPD cover is active, the sum insured (the lump sum payable), and the insurer's name.

Some funds display this on the front dashboard. Others bury it two or three clicks deep. If the portal shows a cover amount next to "TPD" or "Total and Permanent Disability", that's your answer — cover is active. If it shows "Nil", "Cancelled", or "Not currently held", the cover has lapsed or was never switched on.

Step 2: Read your annual member statement

Every super fund must send you a yearly member statement. Open the most recent one. TPD cover is usually shown on a page called "Insurance summary" or similar. It will be listed as a line item with a sum insured, a premium (the monthly or annual cost), and the insurer. If you pay a premium, you have cover.

The statement is the most legally reliable snapshot of what you hold for that year. Keep every statement — if cover lapses or changes, the statement is the paper trail.

Step 3: Call your fund directly

If the portal isn't clear, or you want the full picture, call the fund's member services line. Ask for three specific things:

• Your current TPD cover amount, if any
• The insurer name (the insurance company that underwrites the policy — it's usually different from the super fund itself)
• A copy of the policy document, also called the Product Disclosure Statement or the insurance booklet, in PDF

The policy document is where the definition of "total and permanent disability" is written. Different funds use different definitions — some require you to be unable to work in any job suited to your education and experience (the "any occupation" definition), others only in your own job (the "own occupation" definition). This matters enormously when the time comes to claim.

Step 4: Use the ATO's "Find my super" service

This is the step most people skip, and it's where the hidden wins live. The ATO tracks every super account linked to your Tax File Number, including funds you may have completely forgotten. Log in to myGov, link the ATO service, go to the "Super" tab, and select "Fund details".

You'll see a list of every super fund your TFN has ever been connected to, including consolidated and lost accounts. If an old fund shows up that you don't remember, contact that fund directly and ask whether you held TPD cover during your membership. In many cases, you did.

What to look for on the statement

Once you have the statement or policy document in front of you, four pieces of information really matter.

• Cover amount — the lump sum payable if a claim is accepted. Default cover in super is often $100,000 to $250,000, but varies widely.
• Insurer — the company that actually pays the claim. Super funds don't pay TPD claims themselves; they pass the claim to the underwriter.
• Definition type — "any occupation", "own occupation", or an activities-of-daily-living test. The definition is the single biggest factor in whether a claim succeeds.
• Premium — a line item on your statement. If you see a premium deduction, you have cover. If the premium stopped being deducted at some point, cover may have lapsed.

Old super funds — the hidden wins

Most working Australians will have belonged to three to five super funds across their career. Every time you change jobs, your new employer typically pays contributions into a new default fund unless you nominate an existing account. Over ten or twenty years, that adds up to a lot of forgotten super — and potentially a lot of forgotten TPD cover.

There are two tools designed specifically for this. The first is the ATO's LisTo service — the "Lost and Unclaimed Super" tool — which shows you any super the ATO is holding on your behalf. The second is the reunification feature inside myGov, which lets you transfer or consolidate lost accounts back to your main fund.

Here's the critical point for TPD: if you were a member of a super fund on the date you became permanently disabled, you can often still claim on that fund's TPD policy — even if you've since closed the account or moved the balance elsewhere. What matters is membership at the date of disablement, not membership today. This is one of the most overlooked pathways in TPD claims, and it's exactly why step 4 (the ATO search) is worth doing even if you already have cover in your current fund.

Once you know you have cover — what next?

Knowing you have TPD cover is only half the picture. The next question is whether you're eligible to claim under the policy's specific definition of disablement. That's where the policy wording, medical evidence, and employment history all come together. Our TPD payout calculator gives you a quick indicative figure based on your cover amount and situation, and our team walks through the policy line by line before anything is lodged.

If you think you may have cover but aren't sure whether you'd meet the definition, our TPD claims team runs a free initial policy review. We read every policy document you can find, compare the definitions, and flag which funds are worth pursuing. Our compensation lawyers act on no-win-no-fee terms for TPD matters, so there's no out-of-pocket cost to you for the review itself.