Super funds record negative returns following sustained market volatility.
Australia's superannuation funds have lost an average of 5 per cent off their investment returns following January's market correction.
All of the major funds are now in the red for the first time, according to research from SuperRatings.
"Even the most conservatively invested balanced options could only restrict the losses to 3.25 per cent, while the worst fund saw almost 7.5 per cent wiped off their members' accounts," SuperRatings managing director Jeff Bresnahan said.
"The challenge for funds is how they go about communicating this year's returns to members given the abnormally high returns over the past four years.
"At stake are two things, how to convince members that it is not uncommon to have a negative return and secondly, that their own fund's negative return is better than the next fund's."
Industry superannuation funds may find this task easier, dominating nine of the top ten spots in the SuperRatings performance table.
The only non-industry fund was corporate superannuation fund, the Commonwealth Bank's Officers' Superannuation Fund.
"Industry super funds have again shown their out performance over short, medium and long terms and in both strong and weak investment markets," Industry Super Network spokesman Garry Weaven said.
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