The annual winners of Rainmaker Information’s SelectingSuper Awards have been announced, with a new fund taking out top honours.
The awards recognise the best super funds in Australia, as well as the top-performing pension funds and retirement products.
The list of winners comes with a recommendation from Rainmaker that Australians need to choose their fund wisely.
“If they do so, members can be confident they will retire comfortably,” said Rainmaker research director Alex Dunnin.
“But if they choose poorly, they could be missing out on tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential retirement savings,” he warned.
This year’s SelectingSuper Fund of the Year has been awarded to Hostplus, which took out five of the top awards and was last named fund of the year in 2014.
Earlier this year, Rainmaker’s rival, Chant West, also nominated a Hostplus fund as the best performer. Respected comparison site, SuperRatings, however, nominated UniSuper as its fund of the year last month.
Rainmaker said Hostplus had regularly been a high achiever in SelectingSuper’s monthly performance tables across both the MySuper and personal product categories, generating exceptional returns for their 1 million plus members.
AvSuper took out the Members’ Choice Award for the second year running, which is given d to the fund that is best able to engage members through a voting process, signifying the fund’s ability to engage a community around superannuation.
The list of the 2018 SelectingSuper Awards include:
Fund of the Year
Hostplus
Best in Show – MySuper Product
Hostplus
Best in Show – MySuper LifeStage Product
Sunsuper for Life Business
Best Personal Choice Product
AustralianSuper Personal Plan
Best Retirement Product
CareSuper Pension
Best Performance – Australian Equities
Catholic Super
Best Performance – International Equities
Vision Super Saver
Best Performance – Fixed Interest
Hostplus
Best Performance – Property
Prime Super
Best Asset Consultant
JANA Investment Advisers
Best Value Insurance in Super
IAG & NRMA Superannuation Plan & MLC Limited
Best Millennial Super Product
HESTA
Best MySuper Performance – Risk Weighted
Hostplus
Best Long-term Performance
Hostplus
Investment Leadership Award
HESTA
Members’ Choice Award
AvSuper
Industry Service Award
Lawrie Cox
“Winners are chosen based on quantitative and qualitative research using Rainmaker Information’s extensive database of research, long-term profiling of the superannuation industry and an eye toward current trends in the super industry,” Mr Dunnin said.
“Super funds continue to surprise on the upside, achieving average returns of more than nine per cent in 2017-18.
“At the same time these funds are working hard to lower fees and insurance premium costs while innovating with more responsive products, which highlights how well superannuation funds in Australia are doing their job.
“Australia’s best super funds routinely earn more than double what the worst performers, deliver so members should check at least once a year whether their fund is still the right one for them.
“Not all funds are the same. It’s also no surprise the top funds in Australia have an enviable track record in adopting new technology, lowering fees, and proactively working with their members’ industries and communities,” he said.
Mr Dunnin is right in saying that not all funds are the same, with analysis from the Productivity Commission (PC) suggesting that if the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) were to force a merger of top performing funds with poor performing funds, fund members would save around $1.8 billion each year.
As reported in The Australian, Analysis of the $2.7 trillion super system from the Productivity Commission revealed that average retirement savings would be $22,000 higher across the board if high-cost funds merged with low-cost funds.
The findings, released on the weekend, come ahead of the royal commission grilling APRA over its poor performance in policing the super industry.
Read more at www.afr.com
Is your super fund an award winner? Are you happy with your fund? Would you switch to one of these funds? Would you be happy to receive an extra $22,000 under the Productivity Commission’s suggestion?
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