Super funds safer than houses
As the fourth largest funds-management market in the world, Australia's superannuation system has been given the lowest investment risk rating of 2.9 by researcher IBISWorld.
Thanks to the country's ageing population the increase of baby boomers leaving the workforce is significantly affecting the risk in a number of industries, IBISWorld senior industy analyst, Lauren Magner, reported.
"The ageing population has fuelled increasing inflows to this [superannuation] industry through people seeking to increase their retirement income," she said.
Benefitting from Government legislation setting minimum superannuation contributions for employers, the sector has approximately $838 billion in funds under management.
The superannuation funds management services industry is also expected to increase at a compound annual rate of 10.2 per cent over the five years through 2014-2015 and 8.1 per cent per annum over the next five year period.
"Rising household disposable income and continued population growth are combining to contribute to steady demand in these largely stable industries," Magner said.
The report that measured the likelihood that investors or creditors receiving a negative return on investment in an industry over a period of 12 to 18 months had petroleum refining, and petroleum fuel manufacturing as the most risky industry. This was in part due to the falling capital expenditure on mining.
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