Extensive television advertising plus better investment returns over the past 10 years has given industry superannuation funds a significant edge in the minds of fund members, according to new research released by Roy Morgan Research.
The research, released this week, found that over the past five years industry fund members had indicated higher levels of satisfaction with the performance of their funds compared to customers of the big six retail funds.
Significantly, however, the Roy Morgan Research data has revealed that none of the funds escaped the negativity generated by the global financial crisis (GFC) with both retail master trusts and industry fund suffering declines in satisfaction from the highs recoded in the six months to January, 2008.
The Roy Morgan analysis said this suggested members remained concerned about how their investments were performing.
Commenting on the results, Roy Morgan Research industry communications director Norman Morris said that after showing good levels of improvement in early to mid-2010 following the end of the GFC, overall consumer satisfaction levels for superannuation had levelled out in 2011.
He said this demonstrated that consumers were still concerned with the financial performance of one of their most important assets.
Morris said the fact retail funds continued to trail industry funds at a time when there was much discussion on the remuneration method for planners should lead to a refocusing on consumers – and who they perceive as being better performers.
“Our research has shown that people who are unhappy with their superannuation’s performance are more likely to switch their funds, and with industry funds continuing their advertising assault the retail funds are likely to continue to face ongoing pressure,” he said.
However, an analysis of the Roy Morgan data reveals that self managed superannuation funds lead the way in terms of member satisfaction, followed by public sector funds. Perhaps ironically, the fund that has been in the headlines, MTAA Super, is rated as having a customer satisfaction with financial performance level of 51.7, compared for that of Westpac group of 41.4.
