Morningstar announces Australian Superannuation Survey to 30 June 2014

Morningstar today published results of the Morningstar® Australian Superannuation Survey, providing comprehensive coverage of the performance of Australian-offered retirement savings vehicles to 30 June 2014.

The Survey includes both commercial for-profit and industry superannuation options. Morningstar classifies funds according to a proprietary classification system created to facilitate meaningful peer-relative comparisons.

Key findings

Superannuation funds produced solid double-digit returns on average over the 2013/14 financial year. The median fund in the Morningstar Multisector Growth universe returned a healthy 12.9 percent. This was despite a flat June month (0.1 percent).

The best-performing growth superfunds over the 2013/14 financial year were Legg Mason Growth (18.8 percent), followed by Legg Mason Balanced (15.9 percent), MLC Growth (14.7 percent), Maple-Brown Abbott (14.2 percent), and Perpetual (13.8 percent).

The best-performing balanced superfunds over the 2013/14 financial year were BT Balanced (11.8 percent), followed by AMP Moderate Growth (10.8 percent) and Energy Super (10.7 percent).

Multi-asset class options benefitted from the robust performance of growth assets over the financial year. International shares achieved the highest result (20.4 percent), followed by Australian shares (17.2 percent), international property (15.8 percent), and Australian property (11.1 percent).

The financial year started with a run of six months of consecutive positive performance. The median growth fund only dipped into negative territory on two occasions during the year: January (-1.0 percent) and March (-0.4 percent). The month of July 2013 provided the highest median performance with 3.2 percent.

Multisector growth superfunds’ average allocation to equities at 31 May 2014 was 56.5 percent, 29.9 percent Australian and 26.6 percent global, while the average property exposure was 8.3 percent. Defensive assets totalled 24.4 percent on average (10.2 percent domestic bonds, 6.1 percent international, and 8.1 percent cash). Legg Mason Growth had the highest allocation to Australian shares (48.5 percent), followed by Legg Mason Balanced (40.8 percent), and State Super Growth (38.1 percent).

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