The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released the results of its latest assessment of Australia’s superannuation sector, revealing the funds that performed the best.

When it came to default super options, APRA identified UniSuper as a clear front-runner.

Australian Ethical followed in second place. However, this was the only retail fund to make the shortlist.

Aside from QSuper and Aware Super, APRA’s assessment of default funds was dominated by industry funds – including AustralianSuper, Cbus, Hostplus, Statewide, First Super, and Care Super.

APRA’s full list of top-performing default super options is as follows:

1. Unisuper – Balanced
2. Australian Ethical Retail Superannuation Fund – Balanced
3. AustralianSuper – MySuper
4. QSuper – Lifetime
5. Cbus – MySuper
6. Hostplus – Balanced
7. Statewide – MySuper
8. First Super – MySuper
9. Care Super – CareSuper
10. Aware Super – MySuper Lifecycle

When it came to more bespoke super products, APRA found that HESTA’s sustainable growth option outperformed the benchmark by the highest amount. Unisuper sustainable high growth and high growth offerings followed in second and third place, respectively.

The regulator’s shortlist of high-performing choice fund options is as follows:

1. HESTA – Sustainable Growth
2. Unisuper – Sustainable High Growth
3. Unisuper – High Growth
4. Prime Super – Alternatives
5. Unisuper – Sustainable Balanced
6. Unisuper – Growth
7. Australian Ethical Retail Superannuation Fund – Advocacy
8. Public Sector Superannuation Accumulation Plan – Aggressive
9. Asgard – SMA High Growth
10. Local Authorities Superannuation Fund – Vision Personal. Just Shares

Speaking at an Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia webinar earlier this week, APRA executive board member Margaret Cole expressed concern over the small number of trustees who scored poorly across their entire range of investment options.

“This is clearly unacceptable for members in those products, and raises an equally red flag for APRA about the capability of these trustees to meet their legal duty to safeguard members’ best financial interests,” she said.

Ms Cole called on trustees to improve their governance processes and weed out underperforming offerings or risk being held to account by future assessments of the sector.

“Our active supervision of underperforming MySuper products over the past two years has driven substantial benefits to members in the shape of reduced fees and members moving or being moved into better performing funds,” she said.

About the author

Fergus is a journalist for Momentum Media's nestegg and Smart Property Investment. He likes to write about money, markets, how innovation is changing the financial landscape and how younger consumers can achieve their goals in unpredictable times. 

About the author

Fergus is a journalist for Momentum Media's nestegg and Smart Property Investment. He likes to write about money, markets, how innovation is changing the financial landscape and how younger consumers can achieve their goals in unpredictable times. 

Fergus is a journalist for Momentum Media's nestegg and Smart Property Investment. He likes to write about money, markets, how innovation is changing the financial landscape and how younger consumers can achieve their goals in unpredictable times. 

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