Morningstar® Australian Superannuation Survey, 2013
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 2013.
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 strong returns over the financial year to 30 June 2013, despite recent market performance. The median fund in the Morningstar Multisector Growth universe ended the month of June down 0.8 percent but still managed to return a healthy 16.7 percent over the financial year.
- The financial year started with a run of eight months of consecutive positive performance, resulting in a 13.7 percent return over that eight-month period. The median growth fund only dipped into negative territory on two occasions throughout the year: March (-0.3 percent) and June (-0.9 percent). The month of January provided the highest median performance with 2.8 percent.
- The past financial year produced the highest median result for growth superfunds over the past 16 years, only beaten by 1997’s 19.9 percent.
- Multisector options benefitted from the robust performance of growth assets over the financial year. International shares achieved the highest result with 33.1 percent over the year, followed by Australian property (24.2 percent), Australian shares (21.9 percent), and international property (15.5 percent).
- Multisector growth superfunds’ average allocation to equities at 31 May 2013 was 57.5 percent, 31.2 percent Australian and 26.3 percent global, while the average property exposure was 7.7 percent. Defensive assets totalled 23.6 percent on average (10.5 percent domestic bonds, 6.1 percent international, and 7.9 percent cash). Legg Mason Growth had the highest allocation to Australian shares (48.6 percent), followed byLegg Mason Balanced (42.6 percent), and Equip Balanced Growth (40.0 percent).
- Multisector growth superfunds’ asset class exposures only moved slightly on average over the past financial year. International equities was up 0.8 percent and Australian equities exposure up 0.3 percent on average. Domestic property exposure was lower, direct property down 1.2 percent and listed property 0.2 percent. Growth superfunds’ investment in global listed property increased 0.4 percent over the same period.
- The best-performing growth superfunds over the year to 30 June 2013 were Legg Mason Growth (27.0 percent), followed by Legg Mason Balanced (24.8 percent),Maple-Brown Abbott (21.0 percent), Perpetual Balanced Growth (19.2 percent), and REST Super Diversified (18.7 percent). Schroders (6.9 percent) came out on top over the five years to 30 June, followed by REST Super Core (6.0 percent), andREST Super Diversified (5.6 percent).
- Among the options in the Multisector Balanced category (40.0 – 60.0 percent growth assets), the best performers over the 2012/13 financial year were REST Super Balanced (14.1 percent), followed by State Super Balanced (13.5 percent) and CFS Moderate (13.4 percent).