Super funds returns above 10% for second year
Superannuation funds have posted strong returns for the past year with the median fund returning more than 10 per cent for the second consecutive year, according to Morningstar.
The research house released its regular Australian Superannuation Survey, which covers commercial for-profit and industry superannuation offerings, finding that median funds returned 11.2 per cent for the past financial year, 13.6 per cent over the past three years, and 9.7 per cent over the past five years to 31 July 2015.
Morningstar also stated the median super fund started the new financial year strongly recording a 2.5 per cent return for July with individual fund results ranging from 1.9 per cent to 4.2 per cent.
Outstanding long-term performing funds were the Legg Mason Growth strategy which returned 14.5 per cent to 31 July 2015, but was the leading fund in the ‘multi-sector growth' category for one, three and five years with the REST Core fund being the number one performer over 10 years.
Morningstar stated that the average allocation to equities for multi-sector growth superfunds was 56.2 per cent with 28.4 per cent allocated to Australian equities and 27.8 per cent allocated to global equities. Interestingly, the Legg Mason Growth strategy had the highest allocation to Australian shares, at 46 per cent, of any multi-sector growth funds in the survey.
In the ‘multi-sector balanced' category the BT Balanced Returns strategy returned 12.1 per cent to 31 July 2015 and was also the top returning fund for one, three, and five years with the Care Super Conservative Balanced strategy the top performer over 10 years.
This trend for retail funds to outperform industry funds within timeframes under 10 years was highlighted by return figures released earlier this year by Chant West and SuperRatings which found the performance difference between the two fund sectors had closed since the global financial crisis.
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