Is your superfund performing? Here is a list of the best and worst performing superfunds

Unisuper has taken the gong for being the top performing superannuation fund over five years according to the latest review by investment adviser Stockspot.

Labelling the top award as “Gold Fit Cat Fund” Unisuper took top prize for its performance across seven funds.

Second prize went to IOOF with five Fit Cat Funds, followed closely by Australia’s biggest superannuation fund, Australian Super taking third prize. Australian Super which manages $160 billion for over two million members scored four Fit Cat Funds.

All three top performing funds shared one common factor – their investment fees were well under 1 per cent with an average fee of 0.71 per cent said the report.

The funds also tended to have a higher exposure to US tech stocks and sustainable investments and lower exposure to emerging markets and blue chip Australian shares.

The review of the performance of the 100 largest superfunds by Stockspot was based on the funds’ fees and annual returns to members.

Among some of the worst performers were AMP, One Path and Macquarie.

Looking at the aggressive growth funds, Stockspot found that Prime Super and Unisuper took the top two positions.

“Aggressive growth super funds are funds with at least 80 per cent in growth assets like shares and property and generally targeted at investors with a very long term investment horizon given that they can be very volatile over the short term.

“The top performing growth funds had very little in defensive assets such as bonds and cash. This helped them achieve returns of 7-9 per cent p.a over five years as growth assets have enjoyed strong returns in recent years despite the COVID-19 fall,” said the report.

Hesta, Unisuper and Australian Super took the top three positions for the best performing growth super funds.

“Growth super funds have 60-80 per cent in growth assets like shares and property and generally targeted at investors with a long term horizon given that they can be quite volatile over the short term.

“The top performing funds in this group had a relatively small, 27 per cent, allocation to bonds and cash. This allowed them to return 6-8 per cent p.a. over five years, with the higher allocation to growth investments helping them to enjoy a strong few years of returns,” said the report.

Comparing balanced super funds, WA Local Government, Australian Super and IOOF took the top three best performers.

“The top performers in this group had a 46 per cent allocation to fixed income and cash. This helped them achieve returns of 5-7 per cent p.a. over five years,” said the report.

Industry and public sector funds continued to do better than retail funds because they charge lower fees and tended to have a higher allocation in unlisted assets such as property, infrastructure and private equity which have enjoyed strong recent returns.

Here is a list of the best and worst performing superfunds according to Stockspot: