Industry funds continue to flex their muscles, increasing their customer satisfaction lead over retail funds from two percentage points last year to 6.4 percentage points in the 12 months to February this year, despite satisfaction across the total market dropping 0.4 percentage points, results from Roy Morgan’s Superannuation Satisfaction Report show.
The report said industry funds with a balance in the range of $250,000 to $699,999 had a satisfaction rating of 77.9 percentage points, and their lead over retail funds sat at 12.9 percentage points.
Over the last 12 months, Roy Morgan reported retail funds had shown declines in satisfaction at all levels, with the biggest decline being a drop of 14.3 percentage points for members with balances under $5,000. There was also an eight percentage point decline for those with balances of $700,000 and over.
Industry super funds had a higher satisfaction rating than self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) among people with balances between $100,000 and $699,999, and were only narrowly behind SMSFs for balances over $700,000.
Unisuper had the highest satisfaction rate of 71.2 percentage points, followed by HESTA at 68.3 percentage points and Cbus at 66.6 percentage points.
Industry communications director, Norman Morris, said Roy Morgan’s research highlighted the need to measure members’ satisfaction with performance overall and by account balance across all major competitors.
Morris said retail funds now faced the challenge of remaining appealing to customers given SMSFs trumped them in terms of higher account balances and industry funds lead the way in terms of performance across all segments.
Jim Chalmers has defended changes to the Future Fund’s mandate, referring to himself as a “big supporter” of the sovereign wealth fund, amid fierce opposition from the Coalition, which has pledged to reverse any changes if it wins next year’s election.
In a new review of the country’s largest fund, a research house says it’s well placed to deliver attractive returns despite challenges.
Chant West analysis suggests super could be well placed to deliver a double-digit result by the end of the calendar year.
Specific valuation decisions made by the $88 billion fund at the beginning of the pandemic were “not adequate for the deteriorating market conditions”, according to the prudential regulator.