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Fund performance data released by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) offers consumers “very limited assistance” in checking the relative performance of super funds, according to the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA).
ASFA chief executive Pauline Vamos said the APRA data “does not provide information to consumers to enable them to have the confidence their fund meets their needs, they are being charged fairly for the services they receive and that their money is in an appropriate investment portfolio”.
“Also, the data generally only relates to investment returns up until June 30, 2008, and much has happened in investment markets since then.”
A key criticism by Vamos was that the funds at the top of the APRA returns list generally have relatively few investment options, and most money is invested in the default option.
“As such, the APRA return figure for these funds is in line with the return of their default, balanced fund investment option.”
By comparison, she said the APRA return for more complex funds with multiple products and investment options — such as retail funds — is a return for the total of all the different investment options every member has chosen.
“It is not unexpected that these funds appear more towards the middle or lower part of the list.”
Industry Super Network executive manager David Whiteley said the data demonstrates an average difference in performance between industry super funds and retail funds over the long term of 2.70 per cent.
“Retail funds, which pay commissions, dominate the bottom of the league table, while the industry super sector, [which do not pay commissions], are the better performing funds,” he said.
