Super fund satisfaction creeps toward record highs: Roy Morgan

Overall super satisfaction stood at 66.7 per cent in January, an increase of 1.7 percentage points since the low in July of 65 per cent.

New data from Roy Morgan’s Superannuation Satisfaction Report found that January’s figure still cleared the long-term average of 58.3 per cent from 2007–24.

However, it could not surpass the record satisfaction levels of 72 per cent reported in January 2022.

The research house observed an improvement in customer satisfaction across differing fund categories, but highlighted self-managed funds as the “standout performer” over the last six months of 2023.

Namely, self-managed funds increased their customer satisfaction by 2.4 percentage points to 76.8 per cent, the highest level for the fund type since April 2022.

This was followed by industry funds, up by 1.8 percentage points to 68.6 per cent, while public sector funds saw a 0.9 percentage point increase over the six months to 72.1 per cent.

Meanwhile, customer satisfaction for retail funds saw a marginal rise of 0.4 percentage points to 60 per cent, but remained the lowest of the four fund types.

According to Roy Morgan chief executive Michele Levine, the steady increase in customer satisfaction over the last six months was driven by a “record-setting” ASX 200.

“The stock index closed at a record high of 7,680.7 at the end of January and has continued to increase over recent weeks – recently closing above 7,700 points for the first time,” Levine said.

“Even more impressively, the ASX 200 has increased by over 1,300 points (+20.4 per cent) since hitting a recent low of 6,433.4 just over 18 months ago on 20 June 2022, in a period of rising interest rates.”

Looking at individual funds, HESTA and Rest Super (up 4.5 percentage points, respectively) took first place for greatest change in customer satisfaction for the six months to January, but Levine observed that last quarter’s overall frontrunner, UniSuper, fell into sixth place (up 1.2 percentage points).

Meanwhile, Aware Super (up 2.3 percentage points) came in second and Australian Retirement Trust (1.8 percentage point increase) and AustralianSuper (1.6 percentage point increase) came in closely behind.

“UniSuper continues to be the superannuation fund with the highest customer satisfaction of all with the fast-rising HESTA in second place and just ahead of HOSTPLUS and AustralianSuper. All four of these funds have customer satisfaction above 70 per cent,” Levine added.

“In recent years, many superannuation funds have merged or announced their intention to merge.

“The superannuation industry will continue to consolidate as larger players take steps to increase their clout and the amount of assets they have under management in a highly competitive industry. For those larger and more complex superannuation funds to maintain a high degree of customer satisfaction and better investment returns will be more important than ever before.”