In the 12 months to the end of January, retail super funds saw a 4.3 percentage point increase in satisfaction with financial performance climbing to 56.3 per cent, while the industry funds experienced an increase of 4.6 percentage points to 59 per cent.
These figures come from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey, which comprises 15,084 interviews with people holding superannuation.
SMSFs remain firmly in the lead, however, with satisfaction with financial performance among SMSF trustees rising by 4.2 percentage points to 77.3 per cent.
Among the retail and industry funds, the three funds scoring highest for satisfaction with financial performance among their members was Cbus at 72 per cent, Hesta at 70.1 per cent and UniSuper at 70 per cent.
The lowest satisfaction scores were for AMP, at 54 per cent, and MLC at 58.8 per cent.
Roy Morgan Research industry communications director Norman Morris said the most successful major brands in the $100,000-plus member balance market, where over 80 per cent of all super assets are held, are industry super funds, with most of the retail funds “generally lagging behind”.
“The challenge now for the big retail funds is how to raise the satisfaction level of the higher value customers to avoid a potential loss of funds,” said Mr Morris.
With SMSF satisfaction levels higher than that of industry and retail funds since 2002, Mr Morris said SMSFs continue to pose a major threat.
“Particularly for the higher balance members where a disproportionate level of superannuation balances are held,” Mr Morris said.
