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Change your super NOW: Australia’s best performing superannuation funds are revealed – so is yours on the list?
- Balance super funds up 9 per cent in 2022-23
- But ESSSuper returns rose by 13.3 per cent
Australia’s top performing super funds delivered double-digit returns during the last financial year.
This marked a dramatic turnaround from calendar 2022 when the typical retirement savings fund went backwards.
Share markets are rebounding with inflation in the U.S. and Australia moderating from the high levels of last year, giving investors hope interest rates could soon stop rising.
The average balanced fund, with a 60 to 76 per cent mix of growth-orientated assets, grew by nine per cent in the year to June 30 outdoing the average of the past three decades, new SuperRatings data showed.
That is a big change from 2022 when the equivalent growth-orientated super funds shrunk by 4.8 per cent, in the year to December 31, producing the worst annual result since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008.
Australia’s top performing super funds delivered double-digit returns during the last financial year (pictured are young women at Sydney’s Royal Randwick Racecourse)
ESSSuper’s Accum Basic Growth product – the fund for emergency services responders and Victorian public servants – had the best return of 13.3 per cent in 2022-23.
The fund’s group executive of investments, Daniel Selioutine, said a rebounding share market and high bond yields – where government bond investors are compensated with higher annual returns – had helped.
‘Our shorter term performance is explained by our positioning in equities and bonds, however our dedicated investment team remains firmly focused on delivering longer-term investment outcomes to members,’ he said.
Among the 10 top in the SuperRatings table, six had double-digit returns including Vision SS – Balanced Growth (up 11 per cent); Brighter Super Accum – Balanced (up 10.6 per cent); UniSuper Accum -Balanced (up 10.3 per cent); Equip MyFuture – Balanced Growth (up 10.1 per cent); and Australian Retirement Trust – Super Savings – Balanced (up 10 per cent).
The reporting period coincided with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured right with girlfriend Jodie Haydon) announcing in February that from July 1, 2025, the 0.5 per cent of Australians with more than $3million in super would pay 30 per cent concessional tax rate on their contributions – up from 15 per cent now
Over a 10-year period, the Hostplus Balanced fund for hospitality workers delivered the best average return of 8.9 per cent, although the return for 2022-23 was more subdued at 8 per cent.
Australian Super’s Balanced fund delivered average returns of 8.6 per cent over the decade but 8.2 per cent in the last financial year.
Australian Retirement Trust’s Super Savings Balanced option delivered 8.4 per cent over 10 years, but in 2022-23 did particularly well with a 10 per cent return.
The reporting period coincided with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announcing in February that from July 1, 2025, the 0.5 per cent of Australians with more than $3million in super would pay 30 per cent concessional tax rate on their contributions – up from 15 per cent now.
The federal government estimates this will save the Budget $2.3 billion a year in foregone revenue from July 2027.
The Australian share market’s benchmark S&P/ASX200 finished 2022-23 9.7 per cent stronger, with the result largely reflected in superannuation returns.
The last financial year coincided with the Reserve Bank of Australia in June raising rates in June for the 12th time in 13 months to an 11-year high of 4.1 per cent.
Inflation in May had moderated to 5.6 per cent, down from a 32-year high of 7.8 per cent at the end of 2022 but still well above the RBA’s 2 to 3 per cent target.
Super returns have delivered average, annual returns of 7.1 per cent since 1992 when compulsory employer superannuation debuted.
Compulsory contributions rose by half a percentage point to 11 per cent on July 1 and will rise by 0.5 percentage points annually until reaching 12 per cent in July 2025.
