Verdict on last year’s best super

THE nation’s top-performing superannuation funds have been revealed for the 2018-19 financial year, delivering some members returns just shy of double digits.

Super ratings firm Chant West’s results out yesterday also found super funds have delivered a record-breaking 10th consecutive year of positive returns.

The best-performing funds for the past 12 months included Brisbane-based fund Qsuper’s balanced option and Melbourne-based fund Unisuper’s balanced option, both delivering returns of 9.9 per cent.

This means for a person with $100,000 in super at the beginning of the 2018-19 financial year their balance will have fattened to $109,900.

Qsuper has more than 577,000 members with more than $80 billion in funds under management and Unisuper has more than 400,000 members with $65 billion in assets.

Chant West determines a growth fund as having 61 per cent to 80 per cent of investments in growth assets such as shares and property.

Typically most Australians have their money invested in this type of fund.

The next-best performers included Media Super’s balanced option (8.8 per cent) and then Australiansuper’s balanced option (8.7 per cent).

Chant West’s senior investment manager Mano Mohankumar said the returns were a great result for Australians hoping to see their retirement kitties grow.

“The median fund returned 7 per cent, which is a good return,” he said. “The typical return objective is to beat inflation by 3.5 per cent over the long term and it’s been received on the back of nine years where the average return was nine per cent.”

Mr Mohankumar said the underlying asset classes that super was invested in were all in positive-returning territory.