Industry superannuation funds have dominated in terms of returns to their members over the past 10 years, according to the latest data released by Chant West.
The data, which confirmed that 2019 had been a standout year for superannuation fund returns with the medium growth fund up 14.7%, also confirmed that on a 10-year basis the top 10 funds were all industry funds led by Hostplus Balanced, Australian Super Balanced, UniSuper Balanced and Cbus Growth.
However, performance across a one-year time-frame saw a number of retail superannuation funds in the Top 10 mix, including CFS FirstChoice Growth, BT Multi-Manager Balanced, AON smartMonday Balanced Growth and IOOF MultiMix Balanced Growth.
Just how well growth-oriented superannuation funds performed in 2019 was evidenced by Chant West senior investment manager, Mano Mohankumar who said that even the worst performer in the growth category returned a healthy 10.5% which was 9% above the rate of inflation.
“Very few would have predicted such a strong result 12 months ago when growth funds had just lost 4.6% over the December 2018 quarter and investor sentiment was decidedly negative. The 14.7% return represents the eighth straight positive year, and the 10th out of the past eleven,” he said.
“The 2019 result brings the average return over the past 10 years to 7.9% per annum.”
Mohankumar said shares remained the main contributors to growth fund performance with about a 53% allocation on average.
