Morningstar has published interim results of the Morningstar® Australian Superannuation Survey, providing comprehensive coverage of the performance of Australian-offered retirement savings vehicles to 31 December 2012.
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 achieved sound results over the month of December 2012. This capped off a solid year as superfunds hit double-digit returns over the 2012 calendar year. May was the only blemish, recording a negative month. The median fund in the Multisector Growth category (60.0 – 80.0 percent growth assets) recorded a 2.1 percent gain over the month to 31 December 2012. Over the 2012 calendar year, the median fund produced a respectable 13.3 percent gain. This follows the last two calendar year results of -1.9 percent for 2011 and 4.0 percent for 2010.
- The median Multisector Growth manager returned 2.1 percent for December 2012, individual results falling between a low of 1.1 percent and a high of 3.6 percent. Longer-term annualised results for the median fund were 13.3 percent over one year, 4.8 percent over three years, 0.4 percent over five years, and 6.0 percent over the 10 years to 31 December 2012.
- Growth assets contributed to the strong results over the 2012 calendar year. Australian shares, as measured by the S&P/ASX300 Accumulation Index, rose 19.7 percent, international shares gained 14.1 percent, global property securities 26.3 percent, and Australian property securities 33.0 percent. Defensive assets recorded the following results over the 2012 calendar year; global fixed income was up 9.7 percent, Australian fixed income 7.7 percent, and cash 4.0 percent.
- The best-performing Growth superfunds over the three years to 31 December 2012 were REST Core (7.2 percent), followed by AustralianSuper Conservative Balanced (6.7 percent), Schroders (5.9 percent), Perpetual PST Balanced (5.8 percent), and REST Diversified (5.7 percent). Over the five years to 31 December, Schroders (4.1 percent), followed by REST Core (3.9 percent) and AustralianSuper Conservative Balanced (2.8 percent) came out on top.
- Among the options in the Multisector Balanced category (40.0 – 60.0 percent growth assets), the best performers over the three years to 31 December 2012 were AustralianSuper Stable (6.6 percent), followed by REST Balanced (6.0 percent), and Optimum Balanced Growth (5.8 percent).