The Industry Super Network (ISN) has used data released by ratings house, SuperRatings, to again assert the superiority of industry superannuation funds over retail funds and to claim the value of long-term performance in selecting default funds.
The claim follows on from the ISN earlier this week suggesting there is justification for using past performance as a basis for selecting default funds.
According to the ISN, the SuperRatings data has shown the industry funds sector has outperformed the retail super sector with respect to the SuperRatings Balanced Option over one, three, five, seven and ten-year periods to the end of June this year.
It pointed out that the SuperRatings data had shown that industry funds achieved a median rolling return of 5.87 per cent over the past 10 years, compared to a median rolling rate of return of 3.92 per cent by retail funds.
Commenting on the SuperRatings data, ISN chief executive, David Whiteley said it confirmed the industry fund sector continued to deliver better long-term returns on average for members.
He said the data provided further impetus for the principal criterion for the selection of default funds in modern awards to be that of long-term net performance.
"A competitive approach based on the net performance of funds will ensure that the selection of default funds will be transparent, promote procedural fairness and safeguard the super savings of 80 per cent of Australian employees who do not actively choose their super fund," Whiteley said.
The SuperRatings data covering the 2011/12 financial year revealed the median balanced option return to be 0.4 per cent.
