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Home / Super funds / Super fund rankings / Super and pension fund performance: Where does your fund rank?

Super and pension fund performance: Where does your fund rank?

November 12, 2020 by Barbara Drury Leave a Comment

Reading time: 4 minutes

On this page

  • How does it work?
  • What is a quartile?
  • Why use quartiles?
  • Who is Chant West?
  • Think long-term
  • Super fund rankings
  • Pension fund rankings
  • Super funds list
  • Pension funds list

Have you ever looked at your super fund’s investment returns and thought “that looks pretty good” or “that’s disappointing’’, and wondered how your fund compares with similar funds? Is it a consistently high performer or an inveterate underachiever?

Thanks to super research company Chant West, we can now help you answer those questions. Chant West has allowed us to share with you their performance rankings for 235 super investment options and 166 pension investment options they have analysed. You can see the full list at the bottom of this page.


Important: Super funds offer a range of pre-mixed investment options, with labels such as Balanced, Growth and Conservative. The labels may differ slightly from fund to fund and, just to confuse matters, so does the percentage of growth assets (such as shares and listed property) in similarly labelled options.

For example, you may be in your fund’s Balanced option which has 70% growth assets. Your friend is a member of a different super fund, and while she is also in an investment option with 70% growth assets, her fund labels it as its Growth option.

Learn more in SuperGuide article Balanced, Growth, Defensive: What’s in a name?

This highlights the importance of knowing the level of growth assets, and hence risk, in your investment option so you can compare like with like.

Chant West’s investment options rankings are sorted into five risk categories which align with the investment options offered by most super funds. Within each of these five categories, rather than simply providing you with a percentage return, your fund’s investment option performance is ranked according to the quartile it falls within.

This information is difficult to get elsewhere without a financial adviser.


Looking for the best performing funds?

You can discover the top 10 performing super funds across 5 different risk categories here.


How does it work?

1. For over 50 different funds, their super and pension investment options have been categorised into the following risk categories:

All Growth(96-100% growth assets)
High Growth(81-95% growth assets)
Growth(61-80% growth assets)
Balanced(41-60% growth assets)
Conservative(21-40% growth assets)

2. The performance for these investment options has then been ranked across eight different timeframes (to 30 September 2020):

  • 3 months
  • Financial year to date
  • 1 year
  • 3 years
  • 5 years
  • 7 years
  • 10 years
  • 15 years

3. For each of these timeframes you can see which quartile a fund’s investment option ranked in:

Quartile 1(top 25%)
Quartile 2(next 25%)
Quartile 3(following 25%) or
Quartile 4(bottom 25%)

See below for an explanation on quartiles

4. You can also check the median return for funds in the top and bottom quartiles, along with the return for the median fund’s in the category.

You can view a 2 minute overview of how it works below:

What is a quartile?

Quartiles divide a range of data points into four roughly equal groups. In this context, investment options in each of Chant West’s five risk categories – All Growth, High Growth, Growth, Balanced and Conservative – are divided into four roughly equal groups according to their performance.

The top 25% of investment options ranked by performance are in Quartile 1 for each period, the next 25% are in Quartile 2, the following 25% are in Quartile 3 and the bottom 25% are in Quartile 4.

For example, below is a fictional set of results for one category across one timeframe. The results are ordered by return, and you can see that the first 5 funds are in Quartile 1 because they have the best results, then the next 5 performing funds and in Quartile 2, and so on.

Fund / Investment optionReturnQuartile
Fund H5.2%1
Fund B5.0%1
Fund L4.8%1
Fund D4.7%1
Fund O4.5%1
Fund F4.4%2
Fund N4.4%2
Fund Q4.3%2
Fund E4.3%2
Fund J4.3%2
Fund A4.3%3
Fund R4.2%3
Fund M4.2%3
Fund I4.1%3
Fund S4.1%3
Fund P4.0%4
Fund K4.0%4
Fund T3.9%4
Fund C3.7%4
Fund G3.7%4

Note: Quartile rankings for super funds are net of investment fees and tax but before admin fees, and for pension funds are net of investment fees.

Why use quartiles?

By using quartiles, it allows you to see how your fund is performing in relation to all the investment options in the same risk category, without focusing on an isolated percentage return figure out of context, which can be misleading.

For example, you may find that after several years of strong returns your fund suddenly reports a negative return. You panic and wonder if you should switch to a better-performing fund. Then you check your fund’s quartile ranking and find that despite reporting a negative return it ranked in the top quartile. This reassures you that all investment options are experiencing difficult market conditions and that your fund is responding better than most.

Or your fund may have been reporting positive annual returns, but you begin to question if it is performing as well as it should. You check its quartile performance and see that it has been consistently ranked in quartiles 3 and 4, below the average for its category. In this case, it may be worth doing further research to find the cause. Is it asset selection, high fees or some other issue?

If you find that your fund is a consistently poor performer for its risk category, you might consider switching funds. But you should only consider doing this after researching and comparing a number of super funds, not just on performance but also on offerings such as fees, insurance, advice and other member services.

Who is Chant West?

Chant West is a research company that has been analysing super fund performance for more than 20 years. They are a publicly listed company that provides independent analysis to super funds, employers and individuals.

Super funds included in the quartile performance tables are those that participate in Chant West’s Multi-Manager (Performance) Survey which includes all major super funds. The tables include MySuper default options that are available as choice options as well as other choice options. They exclude lifestage strategies where members remain in the one investment option for the remainder of their membership (eg. the BT Super 1970s Lifestage Fund).

Think long-term

It’s important to remember that super is a marathon not a sprint, so consistent high performance over the long run is what matters. If your fund’s ranking slipped over the past three months or year but is in the top two quartiles over periods of five to 15 years, for example, then it may be worth keeping an eye on the situation and doing a bit of digging into the cause. However, it is never a good idea to switch funds based solely on short-term performance.

Super fund rankings

There are 235 super fund investment options ranked across the five risk categories:

Super fund rankings: All Growth category (96–100%)

Super fund rankings: All Growth category (96–100%)

February 14, 2021

Super fund rankings: High Growth category (81–95%)

Super fund rankings: High Growth category (81–95%)

February 14, 2021

Super fund rankings: Growth category (61–80%)

Super fund rankings: Growth category (61–80%)

February 14, 2021

Super fund rankings: Balanced category (41–60%)

Super fund rankings: Balanced category (41–60%)

February 14, 2021

Super fund rankings: Conservative category (21–40%)

Super fund rankings: Conservative category (21–40%)

February 14, 2021

Pension fund rankings

There are 166 pension fund investment options ranked across the five risk categories:

Pension fund rankings: All Growth category (96–100%)

Pension fund rankings: All Growth category (96–100%)

February 14, 2021

Pension fund rankings: High Growth category (81–95%)

Pension fund rankings: High Growth category (81–95%)

February 14, 2021

Pension fund rankings: Growth category (61–80%)

Pension fund rankings: Growth category (61–80%)

February 14, 2021

Pension fund rankings: Balanced category (41–60%)

Pension fund rankings: Balanced category (41–60%)

February 14, 2021

Pension fund rankings: Conservative category (21–40%)

Pension fund rankings: Conservative category (21–40%)

February 14, 2021

Note: Your fund may use a different category label. The important thing is to check your fund against others with a similar exposure to growth assets.

Super funds list

In the list below you can see which super fund investment options are included in the rankings. You can click in the right hand column to go to that category.

wdt_ID Fund Option % of growth assets Link
1 AMP Future Directions High Growth 99.0 All Growth
2 AMP Ethical Leaders Growth 89.0 High Growth
3 AMP Future Directions Growth 91.0 High Growth
4 AMP Future Directions Balanced 75.0 Growth
5 AMP Future Directions Mod. Conservative 54.0 Balanced
6 AMP Ethical Leaders Conservative 33.0 Conservative
7 AMP Future Directions Conservative 35.0 Conservative
12 Australian Catholic Superannuation & Retirement Fund Shares 100.0 All Growth
13 Australian Catholic Superannuation & Retirement Fund Growth 89.0 High Growth
14 Australian Catholic Superannuation & Retirement Fund Balanced 75.5 Growth

Pension funds list

In the list below you can see which pension fund investment options are included in the rankings. You can click in the right hand column to go to that category.

wdt_ID Fund Option % of growth assets Category
1 AMP FD High Growth 99.0 All Growth
2 AMP FD Growth 91.0 High Growth
3 AMP FD Balanced 75.0 Growth
4 AMP FD Moderately Conservative 54.0 Balanced
5 AMP FD Conservative 35.0 Conservative
6 Aon smartMonday High Growth 100.0 All Growth
7 Aon smartMonday Growth 85.0 High Growth
8 Aon smartMonday Balanced 70.0 Growth
9 Aon smartMonday Moderate 30.0 Conservative
10 Australian Ethical Conservative 25.0 Conservative

Learn more about comparing super funds in the following SuperGuide articles:

What is MySuper, and which super funds have MySuper products?

What is MySuper, and which super funds have MySuper products?

February 26, 2021

Super and pension funds with the lowest fees

Super and pension funds with the lowest fees

February 16, 2021

Super funds with the lowest fees for life and TPD insurance

Super funds with the lowest fees for life and TPD insurance

January 20, 2021

How your super fund works and who’s who in your fund

How your super fund works and who’s who in your fund

January 4, 2021

How to compare super funds in 7 easy steps

How to compare super funds in 7 easy steps

October 1, 2020

List of APRA-regulated superannuation funds

List of APRA-regulated superannuation funds

April 1, 2020

What are the different types of super funds?

What are the different types of super funds?

March 9, 2020

How to benchmark your super fund

How to benchmark your super fund

January 4, 2020

Fund Performance: SMSFs vs APRA super funds

Fund Performance: SMSFs vs APRA super funds

May 7, 2019

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IMPORTANT: All information on SuperGuide is general in nature only and does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider whether any information on SuperGuide is appropriate to you before acting on it. If SuperGuide refers to a financial product you should obtain the relevant product disclosure statement (PDS) or seek personal financial advice before making any investment decisions. Comments provided by readers that may include information relating to tax, superannuation or other rules cannot be relied upon as advice. SuperGuide does not verify the information provided within comments from readers. Learn more

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All information on SuperGuide is general in nature only and does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs.

You should consider whether any information on SuperGuide is appropriate to you before acting on it.

If SuperGuide refers to a financial product you should obtain the relevant product disclosure statement (PDS) or seek personal financial advice before making any investment decisions.

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