The degree to which industry superannuation funds have emerged as Royal Commission winners has been reinforced by new Roy Morgan research which has confirmed the degree to which they have pulled away from retail funds in terms of member satisfaction.
What was more, AMP Limited funds appeared to encounter the worst of the fall-out.
The Roy Morgan research revealed industry funds had out-performed their retail counterparts in terms of satisfaction with their financial performance and satisfaction overall.
The research, undertaken in May, revealed industry funds scored 62.5 per cent with respect to satisfaction with their financial performance, well above that of retail funds which scored 56.5 per cent, with the Roy Morgan analysis stating that this six point lead was up from 1.8 per cent 12 months ago.
The research analysis said that in the six months to May, this year, the average member satisfaction with retail funds decreased by 3.7 per cent and that over the same period, industry funds improved by 0.5 per cent
The analysis said that in May 2019, 10 of the top 12 performing retail and industry funds, based on member satisfaction with their financial performance were industry funds, with the highest rating for Unisuper with 70.9 per cent, followed by Tasplan on 69.6 per cent.
It said the only two retail funds to make it to the top 12 were Macquarie with 66.6 per cent and Mercer on 64.3 per cent.
“The top 12 are by no means a uniform group, ranging from 70.9 per cent member satisfaction down to only 58.2 per cent for Sunsuper,” the analysis said.
The Roy Morgan analysis said the lowest satisfaction for major super funds beyond the 12 best performers were AMP (49.3 per cent), ASGARD (50.9 per cent) and BT (52.2 per cent).
A member of the super fund has approached ASIC to investigate potentially misleading or deceptive representations by UniSuper regarding the holdings of its sustainable portfolios.
The median growth fund delivered 1.9 per cent in March, adding to the “stunning” rally that has seen super funds gain 11 per cent since November.
Vanguard has affirmed its support for the current super performance test, emphasising the importance of keeping the process straightforward.
While some superannuation funds have gone down the route of internalisation, others say they favour ‘smart partnering’ with external managers for diversification appeal.
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