Roy Morgan has rated Australia's top superannuation brands and retail funds have come out on top, led by NAB/MLC, leaving industry funds behind largely due to the retail funds' hold on wealthier clients.
Roy Morgan Research analysed the top 16 superannuation brands using a range of nine consumer-based brand measures, which covered customer quality, financial performance, net gains from switching and market penetration.
The results were published in Roy Morgan's Superannuation and Wealth Management in Australia report, released last week.
The highest rated brand was NAB/MLC, with other retail funds dominating the top 10 brands, including AMP, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA)/Colonial, Axa and AMP.
"The retail funds dominate the top brands because their members have much higher balances and higher income members, so they've got much greater profit potential and that's largely why they come ahead of the industry funds," Roy Morgan Research industry communications director Norman Morris said.
While NAB/MLC was not first under any of the criteria, the brand scored strongly in all areas. It showed strong gains from member switching, coming second behind AustralianSuper, which was ranked equal seventh with AMP. NAB/MLC fell back on consumer satisfaction with performance.
Unisuper was the second strongest brand, ranking highly mainly due to the higher incomes and balances of its members.
That may surprise some in the industry after the university fund came under fire after the ABC's 7.30 Report broadcast allegations in December that Unisuper might not be able to pay some defined benefits in 2013 unless financial markets recovered. That could leave tens of thousands of people out of pocket.
"This last-minute revelation could come back in some shape or another to affect Roy Morgan's ranking in future if people don't get what they thought they were entitled to get," Morris said.
"Their members, who do have a higher socioeconomic status driving their ranking, are happy, but that may change if they don't get their benefits."
Third place was taken by CBA/Colonial. The brand's strongest performance was based on the relatively high proportion of products sold by financial planners, net switching gains and member satisfaction with investment performance. The brand does, however, have a relatively low proportion of members who made extra super contributions compared to other retail funds.
Mercer was ranked fourth overall, though it ranked first on several measures, including income, proportion of members with a balance over $100,000, average super balance and the proportion who made additional contributions. But the brand performed poorly on total customer penetration and the proportion of products sold by financial planners.
Axa Group was ranked fifth, driven by a strong result for the proportion of products sold by financial advisers and the second highest proportion of members with balances over $100,000.
Axa was attracting high-quality members, which should act to increase the overall AMP brand, ranked equal seventh with Australian Super, once Axa members fell under the AMP umbrella, the report said. St George was ranked in sixth place.
