Following recent speculation that the Future Fund could be designated as a public offer super fund as a default fund, a former Treasury official has found that workers could end up $124,000 worse off at retirement if they were in the Future Fund rather than some industry super funds.
Phil Gallagher found a performance difference of 13.6 per cent of workers’ retirement benefit, based on a salary of $80,000 pa, or $124,850 between average top quartile industry fund pension options and the Future Fund.
According to Industry Super Australia (ISA), Bernie Dean, this showed the Future Fund was not a viable option for workers’ superannuation.
“We need to find ways of connecting workers with quality super funds, not find new ways for them to end up with less in their accounts,” Dean said.
“The extent of the loss calculated under the Future Fund scenario suggests ideology is blinding some to the best ways to put members’ interests first.
“The Productivity Commission has ignored the evidence and recommended a flawed scheme, and, now, people are suggesting we consign workers to an underperforming government-run fund.”
Gallagher, who was also ISA’s special retirement income adviser, based the analysis on super funds’ performance over the last seven years, the Future Fund’s recent performance, and modelled retirement savings from age 30 for almost 40 years.
Insignia’s Master Trust business suffered a 1.9 per cent dip in FUA in the third quarter, amid total net outflows of $1.8 billion.
While the Liberal senator has accused super funds of locking everyday Australians out of the housing market, industry advocates say the Coalition’s policy would only push home ownership further out of reach.
Australia’s largest superannuation fund has confirmed all members who had funds stolen during the recent cyber fraud crime have been reimbursed.
As institutional investors grapple with shifting sentiment towards US equities and fresh uncertainty surrounding tariffs, Australia’s Aware Super is sticking to a disciplined, diversified playbook.