There’s good news for many industry fund members as return announcements start to roll in, with some set to enjoy a gain as high as 4 per cent for the past financial year.
Among those are members of Host Plus, which saw its balanced option return a preliminary 4.1 per cent for the financial year.
And REST, Australia’s largest industry fund, will credit 4 per cent interest to those in its core strategy option, chosen by 98 per cent of its 1.3 million members.
Indeed, REST had another shining year with 11 out of its 12 investment options ending in the black with returns ranging from 0.16 per cent for shares to 10.7 per cent for bonds.
Members in Care Super’s default balanced option will also benefit from a 4 per cent rise for the year while those in the Australian Retirement Fund’s (ARF) balanced plan — around 90 per cent of ARF’s members — earned 3.8 per cent because the fund was underweight in international equities.
ARF’s fixed interest option was its best performer, returning 9.7 per cent, while its high growth active option came in with 1.6 per cent and its Australian share option with 1.2 per cent. But its overseas offering ended the year in negative territory, losing 8.6 per cent.
equipsuper’s growth option, which is its default, rewarded members with a 2.8 per cent gain while FinSuper’s moderate growth option, a default fund, ended the year with a return of 2 per cent.
Members in both HESTA’s default, its balanced Core Pool option, and Westscheme’s default, the Trustee Selection, earned 1.5 per cent for the year. Meanwhile, AvSuper’s default growth option edged 0.1 per cent higher while Asset Super’s medium growth option lost 1.8 per cent. Health Super’s Medium Term default option returned -1 per cent.
Overall, however, the results appear to also be good news for JANA Investment Advisers which acts as asset consultant for funds like Host Plus, REST, FinSuper, ARF, Care and equipsuper.
