There's a $10 billion elephant in the room and it takes the form of unclaimed superannuation says the Australian Taxation Office. And you could own a slice of it.

If you've racked up a few jobs in your time, done casual or part time work or moved house and not notified all of your previous superannuation funds, you could be missing out on thousands of dollars in your final retirement payout.

Consolidating superannuation generally lowers fees, reduces paperwork and makes super far easier to keep track of. It all sounds good in theory, but we Australians tend to have a more 'set and forget' attitude when it comes to tying up the loose ends on our super.

Superannuation is reported to the ATO as unclaimed when your address details are out of date and a fund is no longer able to contact you, or when no contributions or rollover amounts have been made into a fund in the last 2 years.

The ATO offers a free unclaimed superannuation search tool called SuperSeeker at the www.ato.gov.au website. Supply your tax file number, name and date of birth and it automatically searches its Lost Members Register for you.

Organisations like Find My Super have also emerged in recent years to address this growing problem. Find My Super searches the ATO register, plus eligible rollover funds, super funds and government lost monies for a $55 fee. Russell Medcraft, the Founder and Managing Director of Find My Super, believes the interest lost through unclaimed accounts is by far the most significant issue in superannuation today.

"Statistics tell us that 10 percent of people change jobs every year and 9 percent move house over the same period, but most people don't get around to tidying up their old account. The funds then roll that superannuation over from a low cost employer fund into an eligible rollover fund, where the insurance is lost and the super goes into a cash account earning only a meagre amount of interest. It effectively becomes the most expensive form of superannuation there is."

It all adds up to a lot of interest that Australians are missing out on. "These eligible rollover funds earn 5 percent interest on average, whereas it could be earning 11 percent, which is the average return for super funds over the last 5 years," Russell says. If you are considering the consolidation of your super, it is important however to be aware of any transfer, withdrawal or exit fees you may incur on your accounts. And also make sure you're not losing any valuable benefits that may be worth holding onto.

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