POWERED BY MOMENTUM MEDIA
Wilson’s probing questions confirm super negativity
Questions posed by the chairman of a key parliamentary committee have served to lay bare the negative returns delivered via the MySuper products of some of Australia’s major superannuation funds last financial year.
The chairman of the House of Representative Standing Committee on Economics, Tim Wilson, sought to probe superannuation funds about their advertising and other expenditures and the returns generated for members but has ended up revealing just how tough the first half of 2020 proved to be.
Amongst the major funds reporting negative returns were Colonial First State and Fiducian along with a number of industry superannuation funds.
Wilson asked of the funds and companies to complete a table for the average return on all their investments over the past five years.
Indicative of the general tenor of answers provided to Wilson was that provided by Colonial First State which for 2019/20 revealed negative outcomes ranging from 7.10% for Commonwealth Essential Super to somewhat more palatable outcome of negative 0.30% for the company’s Encircle superannuation fund.
This compared to Fiducian reporting an average negative return of 1.3% for 2019/20, well down on the 9% reported in 2017/18.
These sorts of results compared to a positive 0.2% reported to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) by AustralianSuper and negative 2% reported by Hostplus.
Importantly, all the funds which confirmed descending into negative return territory in 2019/20 did so off the back of more robust returns in the prior financial year with almost all of them now having ridden the market recovery which cut in the second half of last year.
Recommended for you
Super funds had a “tremendous month” in November, according to new data.
Australia faces a decade of deficits, with the sum of deficits over the next four years expected to overshoot forecasts by $21.8 billion.
APRA has raised an alarm about gaps in how superannuation trustees are managing the risks associated with unlisted assets, after releasing the findings of its latest review.
Compared to how funds were allocated to March this year, industry super funds have slightly decreased their allocation to infrastructure in the six months to September – dropping from 11 per cent to 10.6 per cent, according to the latest APRA data.
TOP PERFORMING FUNDS
ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
1
Spire Oaktree Opportunities XI Second Close
61.07 3 y p.a(%)
2
Spire Oaktree Opportunities XI First Close USD
59.21 3 y p.a(%)
3
DomaCom Lot 21 Chellaston Road Munno Para West SA 5115 Australia
31.73 3 y p.a(%)
4
Fidante Credit Suisse Global Private Equity
30.15 3 y p.a(%)
5
DomaCom 4/27 Crombie Avenue Bundall QLD 4217 Australia
26.71 3 y p.a(%)
