The top 10 super funds of the last 10 years

Delivering some 8.9 per cent returns per annum, the Hostplus Balanced option continues to be the top-performing growth fund in Australia in the last decade.

This is well over the median of 7.5 per cent, according to Chant West’s analysis. 

Earlier this week, Hostplus announced its Balanced option returned 8 per cent for the FY2022-23 financial year.

Chant West said investment options in its growth fund category are where the majority of Australians have their super invested, those options holding 61–80 per cent in growth assets.

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The second top performer is $300 billion fund AustralianSuper, which remains the country’s largest super fund with over 3.1 million members. On a 10-year horizon, its Balanced option has seen some 8.6 per cent returns. 

One of the country’s newer super funds, Australian Retirement Trust (ART), comes in the third spot with 8.4 per cent. Formed in February 2022 through the Sunsuper and QSuper, ART’s Super Savings Balanced option has adopted the pre-merger investment strategy of the Sunsuper Balanced option. 

According to Chant West’s analysis, the top five growth performers are rounded up by $115 billion UniSuper Balanced (8.4 per cent) and Cbus Growth (MySuper) (8.3 per cent). 

Seven of the top 10 performers in the last decade have been larger funds, however some of Australia’s small and medium funds also delivered strong long-term returns, it noted.

This includes the $12 billion fund Vision Super in sixth place, currently in the next stage of merger talks with Active Super to form a $27 billion fund, which has a 10-year return of 8.1 per cent in its Super Balanced Growth option. 

This is followed by CareSuper Balanced and HESTA Balanced Growth, both at 8 per cent. 

Towards the end of the leaderboard, $160 billion fund Aware Super holds the ninth spot at 7.9 per cent.
In final spot, Spirit Super, which has entered a binding agreement to merge with CareSuper to create a $50 billion combined fund, has seen 7.8 per cent returns in the 10 years to 30 June 2023. 

The inclusion of small funds highlights size need not be an obstacle to performance, especially as APRA encourages smaller funds to merge with larger rivals for scale benefits.

“While we absolutely believe there are benefits of having scale, some small to medium-sized funds have also invested wisely,” said Mano Mohankumar, Chant West senior investment research manager.