Morningstar has published results of the Morningstar® Australian Superannuation Survey, providing comprehensive coverage of the performance of Australian-offered retirement savings vehicles to 31 July 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
Australian superannuation funds generally made positive gains over July 2014. The median growth fund in the Morningstar Australian Superannuation Survey returned 1.4 percent. Individual results ranged from a high of 2.6 percent to a low of 0.4 percent.
Longer-term annualised median returns were 10.8 percent (one year), 10.8 percent (three years), 9.1 percent (five years), and 6.8 percent (10 years to 31 July 2014).
The best-performing growth superfunds over the year to 31 July were Legg Mason Growth (16.1 percent), followed by Legg Mason Balanced (13.5 percent), Maple-Brown Abbott (12.9 percent), MLC Growth (12.3 percent), and Energy Super Balanced (12.1 percent).
The best-performing balanced (40.0-60.0% growth assets) superfunds over the year to 31 July were BT Balanced (10.2 percent), followed by Energy Super Capital Managed (9.8 percent) and AMP Moderate Growth (9.1 percent).
Growth assets generally produced positive results in July – Australian listed property was up 5.0 percent, Australian shares 4.4 percent, global listed property 0.6 percent, while international shares was down -0.2 percent. Australian listed property provided the standout performance over the year (17.5 percent), followed by Australian shares (17.2 percent), global listed property (15.1 percent), and international shares (11.8 percent).
Multisector growth superfunds’ average allocation to equities at 30 June 2014 was 56.7 percent, 29.7 percent Australian and 27.0 percent global, while the average property exposure was 7.9 percent. Defensive assets totalled 23.3 percent on average (9.6 percent domestic bonds, 5.8 percent international, and 7.9 percent cash). Legg Mason Growth had the highest allocation to Australian shares (51.7 percent), followed by Legg Mason Balanced (45.8 percent), and State Super Growth (38.8 percent).
Click here to read this month’s Survey.
