Morningstar Australian Superannuation Survey results published

Morningstar today published results of the Morningstar® Australian Superannuation Survey, providing comprehensive coverage of the performance of Australian-offered retirement savings vehicles to 31 May 2015.

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 bounced back into positive territory in May, the median growth fund returning 1.0 percent. Results ranged from 1.6 to 0.2 percent. Over the longer term, the medians were 12.4 percent over the year, 14.1 percent over the three years and 9.7 percent over the five years to 31 May 2015.

The best-performing growth superfunds over the year to 31 May were Legg Mason Growth (17.4 percent), AMP Balanced Growth (15.4 percent), and BT Active Balanced (14.8 percent).

The best-performing balanced (40.0 – 60.0 percent growth assets) superfunds over the year to 31 May were BT Balanced Returns (14.4 percent), AMP Moderate Growth (11.2 percent), and AMP Moderately Conservative (11.0 percent).

Australian listed property provided the standout performance among asset classes over the year (29.7 percent), followed by global shares (29.2 percent), global listed property (14.8 percent), and Australian shares (9.9 percent).

Multisector growth superfunds’ average allocation to equities at 30 April 2015 was 56.8 percent, 28.9 percent Australian and 27.9 percent global, while the average property exposure was 8.5 percent. Defensive assets totalled 25.9 percent on average (10.6 percent domestic bonds, 6.9 percent international, and 8.4 percent cash). Legg Mason Growth had the highest allocation to Australian shares (45.4 percent), followed by Legg Mason Balanced (39.0 percent), and Energy Super SRI Balanced (36.0 percent).

Source: Morningstar Research