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Retail funds hit a record-high satisfaction rate
A new Roy Morgan report has found retail super funds had the largest increase in customer satisfaction in the last year, but its record-high rating still lags other super categories.
The latest Roy Morgan Superannuation Satisfaction Report found that retail funds hit a record high for customer satisfaction at 69.3 per cent, though it remains the lowest of the four categories.
However, it gained significant ground on the back of the largest jump among super fund sectors with a 6.4 percentage point jump.
The period covered is from November 2024 to May 2025, which included two RBA interest rate cuts – one in February 2025 of 25 basis points (bps) to 4.1 per cent and an additional cut of 25 bps to 3.85 per cent in May.
The report noted there has been improvement across all four different categories of super funds over the last year.
Industry funds went up 2 percentage points to 69.5 per cent, the highest level of satisfaction since November 2022.
In addition, customer satisfaction with public sector funds is up 0.8 percentage points to 75 per cent, its highest level for two years since June 2022.
SMSFs improved by 0.8 percentage points in the past 12 months to 77.7 per cent – the highest customer satisfaction of any of the four categories.
Despite hitting a low point in July 2023, superannuation satisfaction with financial performance has remained significantly higher than the long-term average of 59 per cent post-pandemic and is now approaching the record high of 72 per cent reached in January 2022.
Michele Levine, Roy Morgan CEO, said customer satisfaction with superannuation funds has continued to improve in recent months as the ASX 200 stock index has increased to new record highs.
“Overall customer satisfaction has increased consistently over the last two years and is up 3.1 per cent points from a year ago and is now over 10 per cent points above the long-term average over the last 18 years of 59 per cent,” Levine said.
She said one factor likely to be driving the rapidly increasing satisfaction for retail funds over the last year compared with industry funds is the higher investment exposure they tend to have to equities.
“The strong share-market returns over the last year will be having a bigger impact on the bottom line for retail funds than industry funds,” Levine added.
“Several retail funds have performed exceptionally well over the last year including Macquarie which now has the highest customer satisfaction of any retail fund.”
She continued that industry funds that stand out with large increases over the last year are led by HESTA, Aware, Cbus, REST Super, AustralianSuper, and UniSuper.
“UniSuper continues to be the superannuation fund with the highest customer satisfaction of any industry fund ahead of the fast-rising HESTA in second place,” Levine said.
“In recent years, many superannuation funds have merged or announced their intention to merge. Roy Morgan has extensive data on how these mergers and acquisitions affect the customer satisfaction of the super funds involved. A key message raised by customers is the importance of communication and a smooth transition process for the members throughout.”
She added that going forward and due to legislative changes, the superannuation industry is continuing to consolidate with larger players taking steps to increase their size and clout and the amount of assets they have under management.
“In an increasingly competitive industry, it is more important than ever before for larger and more complex superannuation funds to maintain a high level of customer satisfaction and market-leading investment returns,” Levine said.
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