Aon Master Trust recognised for best YTD performance

The Aon Master Trust’s Balanced Growth – Active investment option has been ranked first by two independent research firms based on its one-year return. The option achieved a 19.0% net return, placing it at the top of the charts for both the Chant West survey and the SuperRatings SR50 rankings. In October, the 20.1% net return was again in the number one position for one-year returns in the SuperRatings SR50 table.

There were positive results across the board for ‘balanced’* investment options during 2012/13. With around 70% of Australians invested in balanced options, over 12 million people benefited from some of the stronger one-year returns since the compulsory introduction of superannuation 21 years ago. This result can be attributed to the performance of growth assets such as domestic and international shares over the past year.

Janice Sengupta, Chief Investment Officer, Aon Hewitt is delighted with the Aon Master Trust’s year-to-date result, however she is keen to see members take a long-term perspective in assessing superannuation performance and look beyond return figures.

“Being ranked number one for the past year is obviously very pleasing. Over 50% of our members are invested in this option so we are of course glad that many have enjoyed the best returns in the market over this period. However it’s more important that members look beyond one-year timeframes when assessing their fund as superannuation is a lifetime investment. We have consistently outperformed the master trust median over the past 10 years while maintaining an enviable risk/return profile.”

Sengupta also commented on how the Aon Master Trust is achieving its competitive returns with a focus on prudent management, in keeping with Aon’s culture of protecting people from risks.

“We have a strong focus on risk management when investing members’ funds. The Aon Master Trust considers a number of risk factors such as the dynamics of different types of investment strategies, liquidity, and exposure to foreign exchange fluctuations. We hedge 100 per cent of the fixed interest portfolios in order to get a pure return from fixed interest securities and we are also hedged 30 per cent in our equities portfolio to mitigate volatility from currency movements.”

The Aon Master Trust is continuing to mitigate risk for members who have not made an investment choice under its new Aon MySuper product. By incorporating a lifecycle investment approach that adjusts automatically based on the member’s age, it places younger people in growth assets, as they have a higher capacity to withstand investment risk and recover from market declines, and then gradually moves to more defensive assets as they near retirement. Aon MySuper will begin accepting contributions from 1 January 2014.

* The ‘balanced’ category is defined as 61-80% growth in the Chant West survey and 60-76% in the SuperRatings categories.