Best performance in Australia pension Investment funds have revealed that members have reaped the benefits of an “impressive” year of returns, according to new research.
Global tech stocks and Australian banks helped drive above-average returns through 2024, according to investment research group Lonsec. Excellent reviews He said.
SuperRatings found that the balanced fund returned an average of 8.8% to members in the year to June 30, while the best-performing options reached double digits.
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Hostplus’s Balanced Index was the best performing balanced strategy for the year ended June 30, with a return of 12.2 percent.
This was closely followed by Raiz Super’s Moderately Aggressive and Colonial First State’s Enhanced Index Balanced, with returns of 12.1% and 11.4%, respectively.
“Funds with higher exposure to listed equities and assets performed better overall during the year, while funds with greater exposure to unlisted real estate reported more modest results,” Super Ratings said in its results.
The best performing option in the MySuper Lifecycle was the Colonial First State Essential Super MySuper — Lifestage 1975-79 at 14.6 percent.
Life cycle options are funds that typically move your money from growth investments when you’re young to more conservative investments when you’re older.
However, SuperRatings researchers have noticed a trend of increasing lifecycle options with exposure to growth assets like stocks, said CEO Kirby Rabil.
“While members have benefited this year, greater exposure to these assets also comes with increased ups and downs, and we encourage members to learn how their fund investment strategy works so they can feel comfortable with annual and long-term performance results,” said Rabil.
The researchers also found that investments with a sustainable focus also outperformed over the year, with Raiz Super’s Emerald investment option delivering the highest return of 14.8 percent.
Top 10 Balanced Options Over 12 Months
- Hostplus – Balanced Indexed (12.2 percent)
- Rise Super – Moderately Aggressive (12.1%)
- CFS-FC Wsale Pers – CFS Enhanced Balanced Index (11.4 percent)
- ESSSuper – Balanced growth (11.1 percent)
- IOOF Employer Super – MLC MultiSeries 70 (10.9 percent)
- Brighter – Balanced (10.6%)
- GESB Super – My GESB Super Plan (10.4 percent)
- Qantas Super – growth (10.1 per cent)
- Australian Superannuation Fund – Super Savings – Balanced (9.9%)
- MLC MKey Business Super – Balanced MLC (9.6 percent)
Top 10 Balanced Options Over 10 Years
While examining annual results can be helpful, it shouldn’t be the end-all be-all when considering your retirement, Rabil said.
“The purpose of retirement is to maximize returns over the long term,” he explained.
“Most of us will have plenty of time until we retire and start accessing our pensions, so it’s important to block out as much noise as possible and focus on how we’ll perform in the long term.”
In this case, Hostplus’s Balanced Investment Option remained the best performing balanced option over 10 years, with a return of 8.3% per annum with the top 10 performing companies over the ten years through June.
A research study found that the following balanced option funds offer the best returns over 10 years:
- Hostplus — Balanced
- Australian Superannuation Fund – Super Savings – Balanced
- AustralianSuper — Balanced
- UniSuper — Balanced
- Cbus — Growth (MySuper)
- Hostplus — Balanced Indexer
- Super Vision – Balanced Growth
- HESTA – Balanced Growth
- CareSuper — Balanced
- Spirit Super – Balanced (My Super)
