Self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) have seen the biggest drop of satisfaction in the last year, as overall super fund satisfaction declines slightly, according to research from Roy Morgan.
Roy Morgan’s ‘Superannuation Satisfaction Report’ showed an overall super fund satisfaction with financial performance rating of 61.6% in July, which was down 1.3% on the previous month but only down 0.1% compared to a year ago (61.7%).
The new ratings covered the first month when Australians were able to apply to withdraw a second tranche of up to $10,000 from their super accounts.
Industry funds were the only ones to see an increase of satisfaction, up 0.2% to 63%, while public sector funds fell 0.4% to 71.4% but retained the highest of any sector.
Retail fund satisfaction dropped 2.5% to 54.9%, but SMSFs dropped 10.4% to 67.1%.
Unisuper had the highest customer satisfaction rating out of the industry super funds followed by CARE super, AustralianSuper, Hostplus, HESTA, Cbus, Sunsuper, First State Super and REST.
Colonial First State was the best-performing retail super fund, followed by BT, OnePath, MLC and AMP.
Michele Levine, Roy Morgan chief executive, said July 2020 was well into the period of re-opening for most of Australia, but it was also the month Victoria returned to a Stage 3 lockdown in response to a second wave of COVID-19.
“The customer satisfaction with financial performance ratings of Australia’s super funds are reliant on the performance of the Australian share-markets which dropped significantly in March but have since been stable for nearly four months,” Levine said.
“The ASX 200 Index bottomed at 4,564 points on 24 March but by the end of May it had rebounded by nearly 30% to end the month of May at 5,851 and closed last week (18 September) at 5,864.
“The declining number of cases of COVID-19 in Victoria since peaking in early August is a big positive for the broader economic picture and suggests Australia can continue on the road to recovery in the months ahead, as the country emerges from the lockdowns and border closures that have stifled the economy.”
According to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), the COVID-19 early release of super scheme had seen $33 billion withdrawn to over 3.2 million applicants and 1.2 million had also applied for the second tranche.
