Superannuation funds under pressure to disclose performance targets

The pressure on superannuation funds to improve their disclosure is increasing, with SuperRatings calling on funds to reveal their performance targets.

Currently, only 40 per cent of superannuation funds disclose their consumer price index (CPI) 'plus' objectives over a specified timeframe - up from 30 per cent in 2008, according to a SuperRatings report.

"That means that 60 per cent of investment options still do not have clearly measurable long-term performance targets. Members have no way of measuring whether these funds have actually achieved their objective due to ill-defined terms," the report said.

But of the superannuation funds that do disclose their CPI 'plus' objectives, "the current picture doesn't look good", according to the report. No balanced options met their objective over three or five year periods, and "very few" met them over a seven or 10 year period, said SuperRatings.

The call came as SuperRatings announced that the median balanced option (60-76 per cent growth) returned its members -1.9 per cent in the 2011 calendar year - the first negative calendar year since 2008, when the median balanced option lost -19.7 per cent.

The best performing balanced option in 2011 returned 3.3 per cent, and the worst performing balanced option lost its members 5.5 per cent.

The median aggressive option (77-90 per cent growth) lost 3.8 per cent for the 2011 calendar year, and the median conservative option (20-40 per cent growth) returned 3 per cent thanks to the strong performance of bonds over the year.