Best performing super funds

Being in a consistently high performing super fund is one of the key factors in growing your super balance over time. Members of consistently poor performers are at risk of having substantially lower super balances at retirement.

The Productivity Commission review of superannuation produced an example of a 21-year-old on a $50,000 starting salary. If they joined a super fund that is consistently in the top quarter of funds rated by performance, they could expect to retire at 67 with a super balance of $1.2 million. If instead they joined one of the super funds that is consistently in the bottom quarter of funds, they would retire with $560,000 – 54% less.

So how does your super fund stack up against the competition? SuperGuide makes it easy with regularly updated performance tables.

Returns are not the only measure of a good fund – fees, insurance offerings, member services and investment choice are also important. However, if your fund has a long track record of underperformance it could be time to switch to a product with a history of superior returns.

When super performance tables are published in the media, it’s important to note that they are generally only listing super investment options in a single risk category. Most often this covers super investment options that are classed as ‘balanced’ or ‘growth’ which generally means they have 60-80% invested in growth assets.

SuperGuide publishes performance tables for 5 risk categories for super funds (All Growth, High Growth, Growth, Balanced and Conservative), all listed below.

• Best performing super funds: All Growth category (96–100%)
• Best performing super funds: High Growth category (81–95%)
• Best performing super funds: Growth category (61–80%)
• Best performing super funds: Balanced category (41–60%)
• Best performing super funds: Conservative category (21–40%)

The table below shows the top 20 Balanced super options (60-76% growth assets) ranked by 10 year return (up to 31 December 2020).

Important: Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance. The returns that super funds achieve will change over time and readers should continue to monitor their super’s performance.

Source: SuperRatings

Note: Returns are net of investment fees, tax and implicit asset-based administration fees. Fees are based on a $50,000 balance as at 31 December 2020. Fees include percentage-based administration fees, member fees, investment management fees (including performance-based fees), indirect cost ratios (ICRs) and taxes, but exclude any applicable employer size rebates.

It’s important to note that the performance for the SR50 balanced index (the average across the 50 funds in the balanced investment option reviewed by SuperRatings) over 5 years was 4.1% per year, so all the funds listed above performed the same as or better than the average.

Fees are an important part of the equation, and there was a significant variation in the fees charged (based on a $50,000 balance) across the 30 funds. The most expensive fund (the only retail fund) charged $817 per year, while the average was $561 per year and the lowest was $361 per year.