Industry funds back on top

More pension products introduced

By Julie May
Wed 03 Mar 2010

Not-for-profit funds have dominated the latest Chant West performance ratings after being knocked off their perch in 2009.

The not-for-profit sector has dominated the list of top-rated super funds in the 2010 fund ratings released by independent superannuation research and consultancy firm Chant West.

Despite being outperformed by master trusts for the first time in four years in 2009, figures revealed a comeback by industry funds.

Chant West principal Warren Chant said the reason not-for-profit funds achieved higher ratings was due to their overall value proposition.

"The better industry funds have relatively low administration fees, excellent investment processes, low-cost insurance and an increasing range of member services including some excellent member education," Chant said.

Included in the top ten in alphabetic order were AGEST, AustralianSuper, CareSuper, Colonial First State FirstChoice Wholesale, First State Super, Hostplus, NGS Super, REST, Sunsuper and UniSuper.

Meanwhile, Chant West noted several funds had also introduced their own pension products, whereas in the past they either had no product or badged a generic one.

"Pretty much all the major funds now have their own pension offerings - even a fund like Hostplus that has a large majority of young members," Chant said.

"It's a recognition that super can be and should be a 'cradle to grave' product, and your relationship with your fund doesn't stop when you retire."

Chant said one issue to watch out for with pensions was whether the fund you were in was going to charge you higher fees when moving from the super to pension division.

He said the better ones did not, but in some cases the jump in fees was enough to make people look for a different fund.

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