Aware Super has announced a double-digit return of 11.02 per cent for its High Growth accumulation option for the financial year 2024.
As the default option for members under the age of 55, over 750,000 of the fund’s 1.1 million members are invested in this option.
Over a 10-year horizon, the option has averaged 8.82 per cent per annum.
Damian Graham, chief investment officer at Aware Super, said the strong return highlights how its lifecycle design is “playing an incredibly powerful role” in helping members maximise their retirement savings.
“It means they have more exposure to growth assets while they’re younger and can accommodate more risk, so they can benefit greatly in years like this – when equity markets have proven robust and, indeed, returns have also been strong across other asset classes,” he said.
He noted the fund benefited from the bullish year seen by US share markets and held “slightly more exposure to international equities” than some of its counterparts, which helped deliver the solid result. In the 12 months to 30 June, the S&P 500 rose by more than 22 per cent.
According to Graham, diversification also played a pivotal role, with infrastructure, private equity, and other unlisted assets performing well.
“Members with our High Growth option are invested in a vast range of assets – everything from graphic design powerhouse Canva and burgeoning takeaway chain Guzman y Gomez to data centre operators, energy transition companies, build-to-rent housing, and so much more in markets around the world,” he said.
Moreover, he said it was “no coincidence” the result comes off the back of Aware Super’s global expansion, having opened its first international investment office late last year in London.
“We’ve done this to bolster our capacity to source great investments offshore on behalf of all our members, and achieve the best returns we can from those investments, and this initiative will continue to play out in our longer-term results,” Graham said.
The fund’s other investment options also saw robust results, with the low-cost High Growth Indexed option returning 14.62 per cent for the financial year and the High Growth Socially Conscious option, one of the four socially conscious options on Aware Super’s investment menu, returning 12.73 per cent.
The core option for members in the retirement phase, the Conservative Balanced pension option, returned 7.66 per cent for the financial year. It has delivered an annual return of 6.64 per cent on average over the past decade.
“Older members with our MySuper product also take great comfort from the lifecycle approach, knowing the risk in their investments is pared back as they approach and enter retirement and have less capacity to tolerate market volatility,” Graham noted.
Under Aware’s lifecycle design, members who are aged 56 to 65 with its MySuper product have their investments gradually shifted from High Growth into Balanced and then into Conservative Balanced, to reflect evolving risk appetites as they approach retirement.
