Industry super funds outpacing retail rivals

Industry funds have vastly outpaced their retail fund counterparts, gaining $10 billion over the last 12 months. 

Data from the latest APRA Quarterly Superannuation research and Wealth Data found the average industry fund now holds $52.7 billion. 

This is up by $1.8 billion over the last quarter and by just over $10 billion over the last 12 months.

Major industry funds include Cbus, HESTA, Hostplus, and AustralianSuper, which is Australia’s largest superannuation funds at over $270 billion.

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In contrast, retail funds are far smaller at an average of $9.5 billion per entity, unchanged from the previous quarter. 

Over the last 12 months, retail funds have gained $0.1 billion, significantly less than the volume gained by industry ones. 

Retail funds include those run by AMP, CFS, and Insignia.

Industry funds saw net contributions of $23.8 billion during the three months to 30 June compared to negative outflows of $2.4 billion for retail ones. 

“The significant difference in assets to entities may well be leading to greater opportunities to leverage scale through investment options and reduce costs for industry funds,” said Wealth Data founder Colin Williams.  

“Industry funds are out in front at 33.9 per cent of total assets after being in fourth position in 2017 at 22 per cent. Most of their gains have come in recent years as they swallowed up some public funds and gained market share from retail funds post the royal commission. Meanwhile, retail funds are flattening at around 20 per cent for the last few quarters.”

APRA data showed retail funds have $689 billion in assets under management as of 30 June, up from $639 billion in June 2022. Meanwhile, industry funds have $1.1 trillion, up from $1.06 trillion in June 2022.