Industry funds continue to flex their muscles, increasing their customer satisfaction lead over retail funds from two percentage points last year to 6.4 percentage points in the 12 months to February this year, despite satisfaction across the total market dropping 0.4 percentage points, results from Roy Morgan’s Superannuation Satisfaction Report show.
The report said industry funds with a balance in the range of $250,000 to $699,999 had a satisfaction rating of 77.9 percentage points, and their lead over retail funds sat at 12.9 percentage points.
Over the last 12 months, Roy Morgan reported retail funds had shown declines in satisfaction at all levels, with the biggest decline being a drop of 14.3 percentage points for members with balances under $5,000. There was also an eight percentage point decline for those with balances of $700,000 and over.
Industry super funds had a higher satisfaction rating than self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) among people with balances between $100,000 and $699,999, and were only narrowly behind SMSFs for balances over $700,000.
Unisuper had the highest satisfaction rate of 71.2 percentage points, followed by HESTA at 68.3 percentage points and Cbus at 66.6 percentage points.
Industry communications director, Norman Morris, said Roy Morgan’s research highlighted the need to measure members’ satisfaction with performance overall and by account balance across all major competitors.
Morris said retail funds now faced the challenge of remaining appealing to customers given SMSFs trumped them in terms of higher account balances and industry funds lead the way in terms of performance across all segments.
The research house has offered a silver lining after super fund returns saw the end of a five-month streak last month.
A survey of almost 6,000 fund members has identified weakening retirement confidence, particularly among those under 55 years of age, signalling an opportunity for super funds to better engage with members on their retirement journey.
The funds have confirmed the signing of a successor fund transfer deed, moving closer to creating a new $29 billion entity.
A number of measures, including super on Paid Parental Leave, funding to recover unpaid super, and frameworks to encourage investment in the energy transition, have been welcomed by the superannuation industry.
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