Australians lamenting the loss of the Ashes can take heart from the fact that, generally speaking, they have been doing better than their British counterparts when it comes to superannuation.
While most Australian superannuation funds turned in double digit performances last financial year, the latest data for the United Kingdom from the European performance measurement division of State Street, WM Performance Services, points to only solid single digit returns.
The WM quarterly pension fund survey showed that pension funds in the UK had picked up after a subdued first quarter to post second-quarter returns of 5.2 per cent, boosting year to date returns to 7 per cent.
WM said in an analysis of the results that for the last quarter, both UK and continental Europe equities posted returns of 4.7 per cent, while better North American equity returns of almost 7.7 per cent to the sterling investor were mostly due to dollar depreciation.
Although the performance was below that of Australian funds, WM Performance Services senior consultant Graham Wood said the results still represented “good news” for UK funds and investors.
