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Laszlo Perry
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Despite plans that would see its overall emissions increase 40% by 2030, Santos has enjoyed even more support from major super funds at its AGMs. These funds increased their investment in Santos in 2022, and voted with management on every item in 2023:
Vision Super has consistently voted for climate action at companies like Woodside and Santos and has joined further investor efforts to ramp up pressure, setting a clear example for other funds to follow. This year, HESTA has significantly stepped up its voting at these companies, with Aware Super and Cbus also showing improvement.
Where mergers between super funds have occurred since June 2022, the single merged entity is listed on the table and occupies only one position on the table, unless the merged funds were found to have clearly separate default options with different investments.
The information provided by Market Forces does not constitute financial advice. The information is presented in order to inform people motivated by environmental concerns and take actions based on those concerns. Market Forces is organising data for environmental ends.
Market Forces recommends all users obtain their own independent professional advice before making any decision relating to their particular requirements or circumstances. Switching super funds may have unintended financial consequences.
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 for you before acting on it.
The major super research houses Chant West and SuperRatings have long recognised this, so they use their annual awards to draw attention to the super and pension funds that deliver not only on investment performance and fees, but also go further in their ongoing focus on members.
Even then, the overall winner of fund of the year may not be the one for you. For example, if you are looking for a pension fund then that subcategory will be of most interest. You should also be wary of making a decision about the right fund for you based on one award. If more than one research house gives a particular fund a gong for best in category, then it may be worth looking at more closely. If a fund has a track record of accolades over many years, even better.
Despite the bad press super funds sometimes get, ultimately they are legally obliged to act in the best interests of their members. The best super funds use that principle to continually improve their service.
SuperRatings was the first cab off the rank to announce its 2024 awards for overall excellence. In its annual awards ceremony on 25 October 2023, SuperRatings named UniSuper as its Super Fund of the Year.
Its MySuper product is a lifestyle strategy that ticks all the boxes in terms of structure and quality of underlying investments. It has a strong investment team and differentiated property and infrastructure portfolios.
Fryer says Aware Super has a great retirement planning tool in MyRetirement Planner. It uses a range of channels to engage effectively with members, with almost all transactions able to be done on Members Online and Member App. It has a strong advice service, offering intra-fund and comprehensive advice.
Cbus was a close runner up for Fund of the Year, winning three awards for Specialist Fund, Member Services and Responsible Investments. Its MySuper has delivered strong returns over periods from 5 to 15 years to March 2024. And in a new category this year, Hostplus won the MySuper Performance Outcomes award in recognition of its strong performance over multiple timeframes.
Hostplus, which now has three index options, won the Low-cost award while Rest won the Best Digital Offering category. Rappell says super funds have been late to the party with digital services, but Rest is catching up with the banks with a new digital app aimed at its younger member demographic.
In the table below you can find the Fund of the Year over the past decade. As noted earlier, Chant West announced its 2024 Fund of the Year in May 2024, while SuperRatings looks a year ahead and announced its 2024 winners in October 2023.
UniSuper has won eight top gongs over the years, followed by Sunsuper with six. QSuper (which has merged with Sunsuper to form the Australian Retirement Trust) has won three times while AustralianSuper and REST have both won twice. TelstraSuper and now Aware Super have had one overall win.
The big picture is the best fund would be the fund that has made its members the most money. Who cares about the add ons, the phone service, insurances.
Realistically, we all want the best return to build for a comfortable retirement. It is all about living after working life, Retirement people.
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.
Some people have a strong connection with their fund through its association with the business sector in which they work, so the idea of merging with a fund in an entirely different sector can be puzzling, even confronting.
The external influences and pressures on funds to merge is introducing a new level of pragmatism on the trustee boards responsible for these funds. While their heritage might be rooted in industrial negotiations and agreements, they recognise that this connection will be less important in future. Instead, funds realise their future will be sustained on delivering optimal retirement benefits to members at minimum cost.
In addition to these mergers, a number of other corporations have rolled their super funds into industry and retail funds, as corporate superannuation trustees recognise that increasing regulation and fund complexity makes running funds exclusively for their own enterprises unviable.
According to recent research from Investment Trends, 27% of members see the merger of their fund with a larger one as positive, with 11% negative. While the latter remains unchanged, positive sentiment declines to 21% if their fund is to merge with a smaller fund.
Industry analysts who compare funds rightly say that ensuring you are paying low fees is one of the few controls you have over maximising returns on your super investments. Basically, the less you pay, the more you leave for your retirement.
Calculations by independent industry analysts at Rainmaker Information showed that super fund mergers that took place over the three years to 2020 resulted in overall annual fee reductions for members of around 0.32 basis points per annum, or around 30% if you consider that a competitively priced fund will charge fees of under 1% (100 basis points) per year.
As the biggest component of fees for the typical member is calculated based on account balance (asset-based fees), the biggest benefit from these fee reductions is to members with higher account balances, but there are usually savings over time for members with low balances.
Once your fund has informed you of this, you can compare investment performance, the fees charged (usually a percentage of your account balance per year) and the risk rating for the option. This is determined by the percentage of growth and defensive assets your money is invested in.
One of the more complex areas for mergers is death and total and permanent disability (TPD) insurance. Having ticked the boxes on fees and investments, members should take note of any tweaks to insurance cover and premiums.
Occasionally, funds can minimise premium increases by adjusting the terms and conditions for cover. The areas up for negotiation are definitions and therefore eligibility for disability claims, caps on cover, waiting periods for claims payments, cover while working overseas and so on. In mergers, trustees recognise that there should be minimal or no detriment for members and often make arrangements for the existing policy to transfer to the new trustee.
Some smaller funds claim that more intangible benefits, such as proximity and engagement with members and employers, justify remaining small. For these funds, success is more about value to members than absolute fee competitiveness. They argue they can achieve economies of scale by partnering with key service providers, like member administration platforms.
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