Australian super funds focus too much on how their competitors are performing rather than delivering the best results for their members, the Fund Executives Association Limited (FEAL) National Conference was told this week.
"You have the world's most cultured and intelligent pension system - credit where it is due - but you pretty much have the world's worst case of peer group obsession," Towers Watson global head of investment content Roger Urwin told the conference.
"Your investment industry lacks leadership as a result of that, because who speaks for the average member exactly? In this you are not only not serving your own interests, but also not those of your members."
Urwin, who is based in Towers Watson's London office, argued Australian super funds should spend more time on creating products that delivered the best outcomes for members and, therefore, should focus more on real returns.
He said a review of products should also incorporate the costs and fees of superannuation products.
"[Super System Review panel chairman Jeremy] Cooper does have a very good point, that we have many investment products that don't come out ahead after the costs," he said.
"And we count too optimistically and self-servingly on the skills and talents of certain investment segments."
Urwin was supported in his views by Schroder Investment Management chief executive Greg Cooper.
"The biggest issue at the moment is accountability. We might refer back to peer groups and benchmarks, but all they do is remove the accountability of capital outcomes," Cooper said.
"I think, broadly, the industry has missed the point. We spend far too much time looking at the construct of our portfolio, rather than trying to understand what it is that we are trying to achieve.
"I want real returns and not relative ones. I don't care about peer groups and if I wasn't in the industry, I certainly wouldn't be looking in the newspapers at the [league] tables."
