Pantheon Ventures says MySuper's focus on cost comes at the expense of returns.
MySuper is short-sighted in its focus on costs over performance, according to global private equity fund-of-fund manager Pantheon Ventures.
"Cooper is supporting a MySuper option, which is essentially all about driving the lowest cost of entry rather than the highest performance, so it is not about net performance after fees," Pantheon partner Sally Collier said.
"It is basically just looking at the cost side; to me that seems pretty short-sighted," she said.
Collier argued that the focus on cost would result in MySuper products adopting indexing strategies instead of active management.
"It will drive everybody into an index fund and to be honest you probably just need one big fund that does index," Collier said.
Private equity investing on the other hand is potentially the most active form of investing, Collier said.
"We think of it as the most active part of the equity market you can get," she said.
"The private equity manager buys the company and can hire or fire the team, can sit in the board meetings, get monthly or weekly reports. We are talking active manager vis-à-vis: 'I'm an active manager, but I don't have any influence'," she said.
Pantheon, which manages about $22 billion, has been active in the Australian market for about a decade and services institutional investors, including super funds.
The firm was acquired by Affiliated Managers Group at the beginning of this year from Russell Investments.
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