Revealed: The Ten Best Super Funds In Australia

Online investment adviser Stockspot has released its annual Fat Cat Funds Report, which ranks the best and worst super funds in Australia. Shockingly, the #1 fund can return more than twice as much to its members as the worst performing funds. Here are the top ten, in order.

Stockspot’s 2018 Fat Cat Funds Report compared 500 superannuation multi-asset fund options from Australia’s largest 100 super funds to assess how they performed after fees since 2013.

The stated aim of the report is to encourage the Australian public to take notice of their superannuation and consider their options, and stop letting “Fat Cats” get away with not delivering better results for their hard earned money

For high growth funds, the top performer was MLC Superannuation Fund (MLC Horizon 7 Accelerated Growth Portfolio) with 14.10% a year over five years. For balanced funds, the winner was Australian Super (Conservative Balanced) with a five-year return of 8.46%.

Here are the top ten for both categories:

Top Ten High Growth Super Funds

The top performing funds in this group had a relatively small (25%) allocation to fixed income and cash. “This allowed them
to return 10-11% p.a. over five years; the higher allocation to growth investments helped them to enjoy a strong few years
of returns.”

Type

Name

5 Year Returns

Retail

MLC Superannuation Fund – MLC Horizon 7 Accelerated Growth Portfolio

14.10%

Industry

Unisuper – High Growth

12.56%

Industry

First Super – Shares Plus

12.45%

Corporate

.Rio Tinto Staff Superannuation Fund High Growth

12.31%

Industry

Equipsuper – Growth Plus

12.27%

Industry

Unisuper – Sustainable High Growth

12.27%

Industry

Intrust Super Fund – Growth

12.27%

Industry

Statewide Superannuation Trust – High Growth

12.19%

Industry

Club Plus Superannuation Scheme – High Growth

12.10%

Industry

Construction & Building Unions Superannuation – High Growth

12.10%

Top Ten Balanced Super Funds

As you can see below, industry and corporate funds made up right of the top 10. The top performers in this group had a 48% allocation to fixed income and cash. This helped them achieve returns of 7-9% p.a. over five years. “A simple index fund beat an extraordinary 19 of every 20 balanced funds over the past five years,” Stockspot explains.

Type

Name

5 Year Returns

Industry

Australian Super – Conservative Balanced

8.46%

Retail

The Bendigo Superannuation Plan – Bendigo Balanced Index

8.45%

Industry

Unisuper – Conservative Balanced

7.91%

Corporate

.Rio Tinto Staff Superannuation Fund Conservative Growth

7.76%

Industry

Equipsuper – Balanced

7.64%

Industry

legalsuper – Conservative balanced

7.60%

Industry

First Super – Conservative Balanced

7.54%

Industry

NGS Super – Balanced

7.51%

Industry

MyLifeMyMoney Superannuation Fund Moderately Conservative

7.42%

Industry

Austsafe Superannuation Fund CRF Capital Stable

7.20%


So those are the top ten best-performing super funds in Australia. But what about the ones on the bottom? Once again, ANZ/OnePath topped the list for highest fees and lowest returns – much to the chagrin of the report’s organisers.

“For six years we have pressured ANZ to respond by reducing the fees in these funds or move clients to better performing options. Instead we have observed that many of their poor performing funds have increased (not shrunk) in size,” Stockspot explained.

OnePath’s Masterfund OptiMix Balanced Trust returned a piddling 6.12% while the OnePath Masterfund Tax Effective
Income Trust managed just 4.77%.

“This speaks to the complexity of superannuation and an absence of healthy competition; which drives the inertia of the general public who suffer most. It also highlights conflicts in distribution arrangements that enable bad actors to flourish within the Australian superannuation system.”

You can see how the bottom ten performed over on the Stockspot website.

[Via Business Insider]

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