Last year was an especially good year for retail superannuation funds, according to the latest report by independent superannuation research and consultancy firm Chant West.
For the 2009 calendar year, retail funds as a group came out ahead of industry funds in terms of investment performance - something that has only happened three times in the last 10 years.
"With their [retail funds] higher exposure to listed assets, they were major beneficiaries of the global share market rally that began in early March," a statement from Chant West said.
In the 10 months to the end of December, the median retail fund rose by 26.9 per cent against 18.7 per cent for the median industry fund, the report said.
In the 12 months to December, retail funds were ahead of their industry fund rivals by 5.9 per cent, but over 10 years industry funds outperformed retail funds by 1.2 per cent per annum, returning an annualised 6.2 per cent against 5 per cent.
Chant West said following 2008, which was the worst calendar year on record for superannuation savings, growth funds as a whole did well in 2009, with the median superannuation growth fund posting a healthy 15.1 per cent return.
Chant West also said that despite the increase, it was still only a partial recovery and a further increase was still required to return to pre-global financial crisis levels.
