SUPERANNUATION
Turning up the heat on your super returns
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is Australia’s superannuation regulator. In December it updated its MySuper Heatmap tool to help people check how the MySuper option in their super fund is performing.
20 December 2021
At Australian Ethical, we’re thrilled to have passed with flying colours! Our MySuper option, the Australian Ethical (Balanced) option was the second best-scoring option for investment performance, and in fact we were the only retail fund to make the top 10.
fund & product* |
performance test metric |
7-year net investment return |
|
Unisuper Limited (Balanced) |
1.46% |
9.22% |
|
Australian Ethical (Balanced) |
1.32% |
9.00% |
|
AustralianSuper (MySuper) |
1.22% |
9.65% |
|
QSuper (Lifetime) |
1.16% |
3.84-9.48% |
|
Cbus (MySuper) |
1.05% |
9.34% |
|
Hostplus (Balanced) |
0.92% |
9.50% |
|
Statewide (MySuper) |
0.78% |
8.93% |
|
First Super (MySuper) |
0.76% |
8.39% |
|
Care Super (CareSuper) |
0.71% |
8.68% |
|
Aware Super (MySuper Lifecycle) |
0.70% |
6.86-8.66% |
*Excludes products not available to public.
Source: APRA, December 2021
The numeric result of a MySuper product's performance in the Your Future, Your Super Performance Test. The performance test consists of two parts:
• an assessment of the value added through implementation of the product's investment strategy; and
• an assessment of administration and advice fees, costs and taxes charged to a representative member with a $50,000 account balance over the previous financial year (“RAFE”).
For more information, see APRA's User Guide.
What are the rankings about?
The rankings are part of APRA’s annual superannuation fund heatmap, which provides more transparency on the outcomes being delivered by Australia’s super funds.
It’s designed to improve member outcomes by publicly identifying which MySuper products are underperforming and the areas in which they need to improve. Almost half (45%) of the products ranked were found to be delivering returns below the heatmap benchmarks.
How can you check your super fund’s performance?
If you have a MySuper product, you can head to APRA’s MySuper heatmap. Use the selection boxes to narrow down the information displayed in the table.
What does this mean for you?
For members invested in our balanced option, we hope it means you can sleep better at night knowing that your super fund is doing good in terms of returns for you while also doing good for people, planet and animals.
If you’re not invested with us, maybe it’s time to consider your options. But remember - while the heatmap is a useful tool to help give you an insight into how your and other super products are performing, it’s important to consider things like your investment timeframe and objectives, fees, costs and your risk profile before changing your super. Plus, past performance of a product isn’t a reliable indicator of future performance.
Could 2022 be the year you open your eyes to ethical investing and make your money matter?