Pension fund of the year 2025-26: What makes a winner?

SuperRatings was first cab off the rank with its 2026 awards night held on 26 November 2025, while Chant West announced its 2025 winner on 21 May 2025.

UniSuper was named 2026 Retirement Offering of the Year by SuperRatings for the second year running. UniSuper has also won Chant West’s top award three times in eight years.

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Rappell says that while more funds are developing their online advice services to help members build their own retirement plan, UniSuper has a wider, deeper advice offering than most.

“UniSuper offers a well-rounded retirement offering which stacks up well on performance and fees,” says Rappell. It also has a lifetime income option designed to allay members’ concerns about running out of money.

UniSuper’s Lifetime Income provides guaranteed income for life, adjusted for inflation. Payments are not affected by market movements and you can choose to have your partner receive your payments when you die. A residual lump sum is payable to your estate if you (and your partner if applicable) pass away within a guaranteed period.

UniSuper was also runner-up in the Chant West awards, but its top accolade went to Aware Super for the second year running.

Aware Super also won three other Chant West award categories – Member services, Investments and Advice services.

Fryer says Aware Super is strongly focused on retirement. While its investment performance is strong overall, he says its more defensive pension options are different to super, with some liquid alternatives and defensive equities to provide a smoother return journey better suited to pension members.

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Aware also has a strong advice offering around retirement, with intra-fund advice over the phone and comprehensive advice through a team of about 70 in-house advisers.

The table below lists the best pension funds for the past nine years as awarded by Chant West and SuperRatings. As you can see, the pension fund plaudits over that period have gone mostly to industry funds, with the exception of corporate fund TelstraSuper. TelstraSuper has won plaudits for its strong focus on its pension fund members who represent a quarter of the fund’s assets.

Apart from TelstraSuper, three funds – Aware Super, UniSuper and Australian Retirement Trust (ART)  – have been out and out champions in the pension space. (QSuper and Sunsuper, both previous winners, merged to form the Australian Retirement Trust.)

Sources: Chant West and SuperRatings

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Prior to the 2025-26 awards, QSuper had won the top award six times. Rappell says innovation in the pension space has been disappointing overall given the large numbers of members entering retirement phase.

QSuper’s trailblazing lifetime pension allows members to take out the same amount of money each year until they die, so they can be confident that their money won’t run out. Another advantage is that only 60% of the money in a lifetime pension account is counted towards the Age Pension assets test, unlike other pension accounts where 100% of your balance is assessed.

QSuper’s annuity-like lifetime pension is an example of the concept of income layering in retirement. The idea is you put part of your retirement balance in a product like the lifetime pension to be used for essential spending but not your entire balance. You then use other pension accounts exposed to markets and potential capital growth for discretionary spending.  

UniSuper’s pension product is very strong on both investments and advice, with a team of over 160 offering advice, support and delivery – from a simple pension set-up service for $500, to comprehensive advice starting from $1,500. Fryer says over 50% of members who enter the pension phase receive personal advice.

While several funds are reportedly in the process of developing lifetime pension products, progress is painfully slow. It is estimated that 35% of fund members are in funds with a lifetime pension product, 29% are in funds developing solutions, including industry behemoth AustralianSuper, but 36% of members are in funds with no longevity product and none in development.

ChantWest’s lifetime product award, for the second year running, went to AMP MyNorth Lifetime which Fryer describes as the most sophisticated of the current offerings.

Industry behemoth AustralianSuper has announced plans to launch its lifetime product in 2025 and more are set to follow.

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The bottom line

Choosing a pension fund that offers the best retirement outcome for your personal circumstances and preferences is every bit as important as choosing the right super fund; perhaps more so.

The annual pension fund/retirement offering awards are a great way to check what the best funds are doing right at a particular point in time, but your search shouldn’t end there. Over the next few years, more funds are expected to launch innovative pension products that reduce the risk of outliving your savings, or provide more flexibility around how you withdraw income, so when retirement beckons it’s important to compare pension funds.