Super funds deliver strong FY21 returns

The top 20 performing balanced options all returned over 18% to their members over the year, a result that nobody would have predicted 12 months ago, according to SuperRatings. 

QANTAS Super Gateway – Growth was the top performing fund over the 2021 financial year, returning 22.0%, and it was followed by BT Panorama Full Menu –  BT Wholesale Multi-manager and Hostplus whose balanced options returned 21.4% and 21.3%, respectively. 

Following this, the top performers over 10 years were AustralianSuper, whose balanced option returned 9.73% p.a. over the last decade, followed closely by Hostplus  –  Balanced and Cbus – Growth (Cbus MySuper) returning 9.67% and 9.6% respectively. 

“Before the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the globe had seen the longest run of growth in its history. As a result, the market crash in February 2020 would have been the first time younger investors experienced such a significant and sharp fall in their wealth,” the research said. 

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“Increasingly, investors are acknowledging the importance of not only the return that an option delivers but also the level of risk it takes on to achieve that return.” 

According to the firm, sustainable investments were also becoming increasingly appealing to a broad range of investors, as the impacts of businesses on people and places became more widely accepted. 

SuperRatings data showed that HESTA’s Sustainable Growth option provided the highest return to members over five years for a dedicated sustainable option, with a return of 11.8%. This was 1.2% more than the highest balanced option return over the same period and this was followed by the UniSuper Accum (1) – Sustainable Balanced and VicSuper FutureSaver – Socially Conscious options which returned 10.2% and 9.8% respectively.  

“Overall, returns for the 12 months to June 2021 should provide everyday Australians with confidence that super funds have capitalised on the market recovery, while also performing well during the sell-off in March 2020”, SuperRatings executive director Kirby Rappell, said.