The Perpetual Balanced Growth Fund returned 1.7 per cent over the 2022 calendar year, according to SuperRatings analysis, more than any other balanced superannuation option.
Perpetual’s super product, which has delivered an average annual return of 6.9 per cent in the past 10 years, was one of only two balanced options to provide a positive return to members in 2022, alongside First Super’s offering, which eked out a gain of 0.1 per cent for the year.
SuperRatings reported that the median balanced growth option returned negative 4.8 per cent last year, marking the fourth calendar year since 2000 in which member balances have fallen.
“This year’s return has been driven by declines in property and international shares and was further impacted by fixed interest failing to act as a safety net,” the firm explained.
“However, superannuation has provided strong returns over the long term with an average 6.1 per cent return since 2000.”
The next best-performing balanced options during 2022 were CareSuper - Balanced (-2.0 per cent), Brighter Super - Balanced (-2.2 per cent), Qantas Super Gateway - Growth (-2.2 per cent) and Hostplus - Balanced (-2.5 per cent).
Rounding out the top 10 were Australian Retirement Trust - Super Savings - Balanced (-2.6 per cent), Mercer Super Trust - Mercer Select Growth (-3.4 per cent), Plum - Pre-mixed Moderate (-3.4 per cent) and ESSSuper - Basic Growth (-3.6 per cent).
“2022 was another eventful year for Australia’s superannuation members, with funds needing to adjust their strategies to increasingly consider risk as greater uncertainty led to a lot more ups and downs across investment markets,” SuperRatings said.
“We continue to see funds merging and investment menus consolidating, but there remains a large number of products across the market; in our latest review, we rated over 450 superannuation products.”
Looking at the performance of balanced options over the past 10 years, Hostplus came in first place with an average annual return of 9.1 per cent.
Every option in the top 10 has delivered a return of 8 per cent per annum or more, including AustralianSuper - Balanced (8.8 per cent), Australian Retirement Trust - Super Savings - Balanced (8.6 per cent), UniSuper - Balanced (8.4 per cent) and Cbus - Growth (MySuper).
Other top performers included Cbus - Growth (MySuper) (8.4 per cent), CareSuper - Balanced (8.3 per cent) and HESTA - Balanced Growth (8.1 per cent).
Meanwhile, Hostplus - Indexed Balanced, Vision Super - Balanced Growth and Aware Super - Growth all provided their members with an average annual return of 8 per cent.
“While members may be disappointed with this year’s performance, if we look at the long term, funds continue to perform well against objectives,” commented SuperRatings executive director Kirby Rappell.
“With more uncertainty ahead, it remains important to set your strategy and try to ignore the current market noise to increase the odds of long-term success.”
Jon Bragg
Jon Bragg is a journalist for Momentum Media's Investor Daily, nestegg and ifa. He enjoys writing about a wide variety of financial topics and issues and exploring the many implications they have on all aspects of life.
