2021 is the ninth year Stockspot has researched Australia’s largest super funds for our annual Fat Cat Funds Report.
We report on the top performing super funds by comparing ~600 multi-asset investment options offered by Australia’s largest 100 super funds to find the best super funds – and the worst. The funds were assessed on how they performed, after fees, compared to other super options of similar risk over five years.
Download the report now to see how your fund compares, or keep reading a summary of our research.
- Top performing super funds – Fit Cat Funds
- Worst performing super funds – Fat Cat Funds
- Best performing aggressive growth super funds
- Best performing growth super funds
- Best performing balanced super funds
- Best performing moderate super funds
- Industry vs retail super fund performance
- How does Stockspot compare?
- Lower fees – industry funds have almost 40% lower fees than the average retail fund. Not having a profit motive means they are not profit driven, but that doesn’t mean that they are all “low cost”.
- Asset allocation – industry funds tend to have a higher allocation to unlisted assets such as property, infrastructure and private equity which have enjoyed strong recent returns.
- You can switch your super fund because there are some super funds who offer indexed super options with low fees and consistent performance.
- If you’re ready to invest outside of your superannuation, low cost indexing is another way for Australians to get consistent returns.
Best super funds 2021
2021 Gold Fit Cat Fund Awards – Unisuper and Qantas Super
In 2021, Unisuper took out the Gold Fit Cat Fund award for a second consecutive year for the most top performing funds over five years. Unisuper is one of the largest super funds in Australia managing over $100b for its 450,000+ members. It shares the award this year with Qantas Super, as their corporate superannuation plan for its staff had four Fit Cat Funds.
| UniSuper Fit Cat Fund Options |
| UniSuper – High Growth |
| UniSuper – Sustainable High Growth |
| UniSuper – Sustainable Balanced |
| UniSuper – Balanced |
| QANTAS SUPER FIT CAT FUND OPTIONS |
| Qantas Super – Growth |
| Qantas Super – Balanced |
| Qantas Super – Glidepath: Destination |
| Qantas Super – Conservative |
2021 Silver Fit Cat Fund Award – AustralianSuper and Fiducian Super
The Silver award goes to both AustralianSuper and Fiducian Super with four Fit Cat Funds each. AustralianSuper is no stranger to the Stockspot Fit Cat Fund Awards having taken out the Bronze award in 2020, while Fiducian (a retail super fund with over $2b in assets) makes its first appearance in our list.
| AUSTRALIANSUPER FIT CAT FUND OPTIONS |
| AustralianSuper – Balanced |
| AustralianSuper – Conservative Balanced |
| AustralianSuper – Stable |
| FIDUCIAN SUPER FIT CAT FUND OPTIONS |
| Fiducian Super – Ultra Growth Fund |
| Fiducian Super – Balanced Fund |
| Fiducian Super – Capital Stable Fund |
2021 Bronze Fit Cat Fund Awards – Aware Super, IOOF, Holden and AMG
The Bronze award gets shared between multiple superannuation providers this year. After taking out the Silver award last year, IOOF shares the Bronze award with Aware Super, Holden Corporate Super plan and AMG Super.
| AWARE SUPER FIT CAT FUND OPTIONS |
| Aware Super – High Growth |
| Aware Super – Growth |
| IOOF SUPER FIT CAT FUND OPTIONS |
| IOOF – MultiMix Balanced Growth |
| IOOF – MultiMix Capital Stable |
| HOLDEN SUPER FIT CAT FUND OPTIONS |
| Holden Employees Superannuation Fund – Cautious |
| Holden Employees Superannuation Fund – Conservative |
| AMG SUPER FIT CAT FUND OPTIONS |
| AMG Super – AMG Balanced |
| AMG Super – AMG Capital Stable |
What did the top three super funds have in common? Low fees!
Despite having different investment strategies, the one factor these funds all had in common was investment fees of around 1% or under.
Congratulations to our Fit Cat Fund winners for 2021. Don’t forget to check on their performance in our Fat Cat Funds Report next year.
Worst super funds 2021
Last place: OnePath
Onepath has topped our list for the most Fat Cat Funds with a grand total of 10 underperforming options, and has been in the Fat Cat Fund category for nine years in a row. Last year, we called upon IOOF (OnePath’s parent owner and 2021 Fit Cat Bronze Award) to look to lower its fees and improve their performance, but it looks like they prefer to keep expensive fund options and members locked into underperforming funds for their own benefit.
| ONEPATH FAT CAT FUND OPTIONS |
| OnePath – OptiMix Balanced |
| OnePath – Managed Growth |
| OnePath – Active Growth |
| OnePath – OptiMix Growth Trust |
| OnePath – OptiMix High Growth |
| OnePath – OptiMix Moderate |
| OnePath – Tax Effective Income |
| OnePath – OptiMix Conservative |
| OnePath – Conservative |
| OnePath – Balanced |
Second last place: AMP
AMP came in 2nd place, with 6 Fat Cat Funds. AMP’s share price has fallen by almost 80% since we published the first Fat Cat Funds Report in 2013, having been through five different CEOs, and billions have been withdrawn from underperforming AMP products. While they have improved from last year’s Gold Winner, their complex and legacy suite of products (which they are looking to rationalise) has led to their demise of yet another year in the Fat Cat list.
Watch our AMP Fat Cat Fund video produced in partnership with The Chaser back in 2016
| AMP FAT CAT FUND OPTIONS |
| AMP – FS – AMP Capital Multi-Asset |
| AMP – FLS – Future Directions Conservative |
| AMP – FLS – Professional Conservative |
| AMP – FS – Schroder Real Return |
| AMP – FLS – AMP Conservative |
| AMP – FS – Super Easy Conservative |
| AMP – FS – AMP Capital Multi-Asset |
Third last place: MLC, Zurich and Energy Industries Superannuation Scheme (EISS)
The Bronze award for third last-place is shared amongst the larger wealth managers in MLC and Zurich due their complex product suite, high fees and poor performing investment options. MLC is in a similar position to OnePath, being acquired by a Fit Cat in IOOF. Interestingly, EISS also received the Bronze Fat Cat award as the public superannuation fund for three investment options that underperformed.
| MLC FAT CAT FUND OPTIONS |
| MLC – Inflation Plus – Assertive Portfolio |
| MLC – Inflation Plus – Conservative Portfolio |
| MLC – Inflation Plus – Moderate Portfolio |
| ZURICH FAT CAT FUND OPTIONS |
| Zurich – Managed Growth |
| Zurich – Balanced |
| Zurich – Capital Stable |
| Energy Industries Superannuation Scheme (EISS) FAT CAT FUND OPTIONS |
| Energy Industries Superannuation Scheme (EISS) – Balanced (MySuper) |
| Energy Industries Superannuation Scheme (EISS) – Conservative |
| Energy Industries Superannuation Scheme (EISS) – Conservative Balanced |
Want to compare your super even further? Read the full 2021 Fat Cats Fund Report here.
Comparison of different super fund categories
Super funds that were analysed by Stockspot go by many names: balanced, diversified, moderately conservative, moderate and capital stable.
Investors need to be careful to understand the asset mix of their fund, not rely on how it has been named.
Find out more about how to choose the right super fund.
Best and worst performing aggressive growth super funds
Aggressive growth super funds are funds with at least 80% in growth assets like shares and property and generally targeted at investors with a very long investment horizon given that they can be very volatile over the short term.
The top performing aggressive growth super funds had very little in defensive assets such as bonds and cash. This helped them achieve returns of 12-15% p.a. over five years, as growth assets have enjoyed strong returns in recent years despite the COVID-19 fall.
It should be noted that the equivalent Vanguard index fund still beat 86% of high growth funds over the past five years.
OnePath featured heavily in the Fat Cat Fund list with five of the worst 10 performing funds. Meanwhile industry funds (e.g. UniSuper) took out most of the top 10 performing aggressive super funds.
| TOP 10 AGGRESSIVE GROWTH FUNDS | 5 YEAR RETURN (P.A.) | |
| 1. | MLC – Horizon 7 Accelerated Growth Portfolio | 14.9% |
| 2. | UniSuper – High Growth | 13.5% |
| 3. | UniSuper – Sustainable High Growth | 13.2% |
| 4. | Equipsuper – Growth Plus | 12.7% |
| 5. | Fiducian Super – Ultra Growth Fund | 12.5% |
| 6. | Hostplus – Shares Plus | 12.3% |
| 7. | CBUS – High Growth | 12.1% |
| 8. | NGS Super – Share Plus | 11.9% |
| 9. | Aware Super – High Growth | 11.8% |
| 10. | Plum Super – Pre-mixed Aggressive | 11.7% |
| BOTTOM 10 AGGRESSIVE GROWTH FUNDS | 5 YEAR RETURN (P.A.) | |
| 1. | OnePath – OptiMix Balanced | 5.3% |
| 2. | OnePath – Managed Growth | 5.6% |
| 3. | OnePath – Active Growth | 5.7% |
| 4. | MLC – Inflation Plus – Assertive Portfolio | 6.3% |
| 5. | Colonial First State (CFS) Rollover & Superannuation – Future Leaders | 6.4% |
| 6. | OnePath – OptiMix Growth | 6.5% |
| 7. | Zurich – Managed Growth | 6.6% |
| 8. | Commonwealth Bank Group Super – Balanced (MySuper) | 7.0% |
| 9. | Energy Industries Superannuation Scheme (EISS) – Balanced (MySuper) | 7.4% |
| 10. | OnePath – OptiMix High Growth | 7.6% |
Aggressive growth super funds: average fee & returns
The bottom funds in this category typically had more cash and bonds, poor outperforming active managers, and higher fees. The average fee in this category was 2.3% which dragged performance down to 5.3-7.6% p.a.
Here the correlation between fees and returns can be clearly seen.
| AVERAGE FEE (P.A.) | AVERAGE 5 YEAR RETURN (P.A.) | |
| Top 10 | 1.2% | 12.7% |
| Bottom 10 | 2.3% | 6.5% |
Best and worst performing growth super funds
Growth super funds have 60-80% in growth assets like shares and property and, like aggressive growth funds, are generally targeted at younger investors with a long investment horizon given that they can be quite volatile over the short term.
Industry funds such as HESTA, UniSuper, Aware Super and Australian Super were in the top 10 growth super funds.
The top performing funds in this group had a relatively small (23.5%) allocation to bonds and cash. This allowed them to return 9.4-11.8% p.a. over five years, with the higher allocation to growth investments helping them to enjoy a strong few years of returns.
It should be noted that a simple index fund still beat 90% of all growth funds over the past five years.
| Top 10 Growth Super Funds | 5 YEAR RETURN (P.A.) | |
| 1. | HESTA – Sustainable Growth | 11.8% |
| 2. | Australian Super – Balanced | 10.4% |
| 3. | UniSuper – Sustainable Balanced | 10.2% |
| 4. | Fiducian – Balanced | 9.9% |
| 5. | Aware Super – Growth | 9.8% |
| 6. | IOOF – MultiMix Balanced Growth | 9.7% |
| 7. | UniSuper – Balanced | 9.6% |
| 8. | Lutheran Super – Balanced Growth (MySuper) | 9.5% |
| 9. | Victorian Superannuation – Growth (MySuper) | 9.5% |
| 10. | Qantas Super – Growth | 9.4% |
| BOTTOM 10 GROWTH SUPER FUNDS | 5 YEAR RETURN (P.A.) | |
| 1. | AMP – FS – AMP Capital Multi-Asset | 3.6% |
| 2. | OnePath – OptiMix Moderate | 3.9% |
| 3. | OnePath – OnePath Tax Effective Income | 4.0% |
| 4. | Energy Industries Superannuation Scheme (EISS) – Conservative | 4.2% |
| 5. | Zurich – Balanced | 4.5% |
| 6. | AON – smartMonday MySuper – Age 65 | 5.6% |
| 7. | Perpetual WealthFocus – Perpetual Diversified Growth | 5.7% |
| 8. | MyLifeMyMoney – RetirePlus | 5.8% |
| 9. | Energy Industries Superannuation Scheme (EISS) – Conservative Balanced | 5.8% |
| 10. | ARA Retirement Fund – Growth | 5.9% |
Growth super funds: average fee & returns
Retail super funds such as AMP, OnePath and Zurich performed the worst out of growth super funds. The bottom funds in this group typically had a higher (33%) allocation to cash and bonds and high fees of 1.8% on average. This pulled down their performance to 3.6-5.9% p.a.
| AVERAGE FEE (P.A.) | AVERAGE 5 YEAR RETURN (P.A.) | |
| Top 10 growth super funds | 1.1% | 10.0% |
| Bottom 10 growth super funds | 1.8% | 4.9% |
Download the Fat Cat Funds Report to dive deeper into the best and worst performing super funds in Australia
Best and worst performing balanced super funds
Balanced super funds are funds with 40-60% in growth assets like shares and property and generally targeted at investors in their forties and fifties with a medium to long investment horizon.
The top performers in this group had a 43% allocation to fixed income and cash. This helped them achieve returns of 6.4-8% p.a. over five years.
However, a simple Vanguard index fund beat an extraordinary 95% of balanced funds over the past five years.
| TOP 10 BALANCED SUPER FUNDS | 5 YEAR RETURN (P.A.) | |
| 1. | Australian Super – Conservative Balanced | 8.0% |
| 2. | AMG Super – Balanced | 7.6% |
| 3. | Colonial First State – FirstChoice Multi-Index Moderate | 7.3% |
| 4. | Qantas Super – Balanced | 7.2% |
| 5. | Qantas Super – Glidepath: Destination | 7.2% |
| 6. | QSuper – Lifetime Focus 2 | 6.8% |
| 7. | Local Government Super – Balanced | 6.7% |
| 8. | LGIAsuper – Balanced | 6.5% |
| 9. | Holden Employees Super – Cautious | 6.5% |
| 10. | legalsuper – Conservative balanced | 6.4% |
| BOTTOM 10 BALANCED SUPER FUNDS | 5 YEAR RETURN (P.A.) | |
| 1. | Zurich – Capital Stable | 2.5% |
| 2. | OnePath – OptiMix Conservative | 2.6% |
| 3. | OnePath – Conservative | 2.7% |
| 4. | MLC – Inflation Plus – Conservative Portfolio | 2.9% |
| 5. | Plum Super – Pre-mixed Conservative | 3.9% |
| 6. | AON – smartMonday MySuper – Age 75 and above | 3.9% |
| 7. | MLC – MLC Inflation Plus – Moderate Portfolio | 4.0% |
| 8. | OnePath – Balanced | 4.1% |
| 9. | Club Plus – Conservative Balanced | 4.1% |
| 10. | Perpetual WealthFocus – Perpetual Conservative Growth | 4.2% |
Balanced super funds: average fee & returns
Funds like Onepath and MLC performed the worst out of balanced super funds. The bottom funds in this group typically had a 41% allocation to defensive assets like bonds and cash. This combined with their high fees pulled down their performance to 2.5-4.2% p.a.
| AVERAGE FEE (P.A.) | AVERAGE 5 YEAR RETURN (P.A.) | |
| Top 10 balanced super funds | 0.9% | 7.0% |
| Bottom 10 balanced super funds | 1.8% | 3.5% |
Best and worst performing moderate super funds
Moderate super funds are funds with 20-40% in growth assets like shares and property and generally targeted at older investors with a short to medium investment horizon given that they are relatively stable over the short term.
Industry and public sector funds made up nearly half of the Top 10 Fit Cat Funds.
The top performing funds in this group had a 64% allocation to bonds and cash. This helped them achieve returns of 4.8-6% p.a. over five years.
The bottom performing funds in this group typically had a slightly higher allocation to cash and bonds as well as higher fees. This reduced their performance to 3-4% p.a, mainly for the retail funds such as AMP, and corporate plans for the major big banks like ANZ and Commonwealth Bank. Surprisingly one of our 2020 Fit Cats, QSuper had a fund in the Fat Cat list for the moderate category.
| TOP 10 MODERATE SUPER FUNDS (FAT CAT FUNDS) | 5 YEAR RETURN (P.A.) | |
| 1. | AustralianSuper – Stable | 6.0% |
| 2. | Fiducian Super – Capital Stable Fund | 5.5% |
| 3. | NESS Super – Stable | 5.5% |
| 4. | Qantas Super – Conservative | 5.4% |
| 5. | AMG Super – Capital Stable | 5.4% |
| 6. | ANZ Staff Super – Cautious | 5.3% |
| 7. | Media Super – Stable | 5.2% |
| 8. | Holden Employees Super – Conservative | 4.9% |
| 9. | Guild Retirement Fund – Conservative | 4.8% |
| 10. | IOOF – MultiMix Capital Stable | 4.8% |
| BOTTOM 10 BALANCED SUPER FUNDS (FAT CAT FUNDS) | 5 YEAR RETURN (P.A.) | |
| 1. | The ARA Retirement Fund – Defensive | 3.2% |
| 2. | AMP – FLS – Future Directions Conservative | 3.2% |
| 3. | AMP – FLS – Professional Conservative | 3.3% |
| 4. | AMP – FS- Schroder Real Return | 3.3% |
| 5. | QSuper – Lifetime Sustain 2 | 3.4% |
| 6. | AMP – FLS – AMP Conservative | 3.5% |
| 7. | Commonwealth Bank Group Super – Conservative | 3.9% |
| 8. | AMP – FS – Super Easy Conservative | 3.9% |
| 9. | Asgard – MySuper – life stage 1940’s | 3.9% |
| 10. | ANZ Australian Staff Super – Smart Choice Conservative | 4.0% |
Moderate super funds: fees and performance
Due to the lower returns from moderate super funds, older Australians and pensioners in lower risk super strategies need to be even more sensitive to fees.
Compare the fees of the best performing moderate super funds with the worst performing:
| AVERAGE FEE (P.A.) | AVERAGE 5 YEAR RETURN (P.A.) | |
| Top 10 | 0.9% | 5.3% |
| Bottom 10 | 1.2% | 3.5% |
Industry vs retail super fund performance
Industry funds (and public sector funds) continue to do better than retail funds. The reason for this is due to:
Large retail funds from AMP and OnePath dominated the Fat Cat Funds with the majority of bottom 10 funds being a retail fund. The common theme is these funds charge higher than average fees.
The bottom performing funds in this group typically also had a larger allocation to cash and bonds and higher fees.
Read more about comparing industry super funds
Superannuation Comparison: Our Analysis
Many superannuation funds don’t index
Both Stockspot and the Vanguard Index Fund options have beaten the average Industry fund and approximately 90% of funds in total after fees and taxes. This is largely due to the compounding effect of lower fees.
Additionally, superannuation managers can easily access low cost index funds, yet many choose not to. We believe this is because there are still huge conflicts of interest in the industry.
Source: Stockspot, Vanguard diversified index fund performance after all fees and taxes based on an accumulation super account
Super funds would rather pay themselves – their big teams of fund managers, analysts and asset consultants – despite the evidence that they do not add any value to super fund investment returns.
Bigger super funds don’t perform better
Super funds members don’t always enjoy benefits by joining larger funds. In many cases there are added costs as funds grow which lead to higher per-member fees. This is because of the cost of legacy administration systems and active investing.
There are more large funds who are Fat Cat Funds and they are usually between $20 billion and $50 billion in size. The best performing funds tend to either be between $5 and $20 billion or over $50 billion in size.
We expect more consolidation and merging in the industry, having already seen the likes of Qsuper and Sunsuper, Hostplus and Statewide, in addition to Aware Super’s recent acquisition of First State Super, VicSuper and WA Super, to become one of the biggest superannuation funds in Australia. Find out how to choose the right super fund here.
Compare your superannuation fund to investing with Stockspot
The table below compares average super fund performance across growth, balanced and moderate strategies.
The more conservative the portfolio, the harder it is to beat an index fund portfolio.
| AVERAGE SUPER FUND 5 YEAR RETURN (P.A.) | STOCKSPOT 5 YEAR RETURN AFTER FEES AND TAXES (P.A) | STOCKSPOT OVERALL PERFORMANCE | |
| Growth | 7.7% | 11.5% (Topaz) 10.1% (Emerald) | Top 1% |
| Balanced | 5.4% | 8.9% (Turquoise) 8.2% (Sapphire) | Stockspot’s portfolios beat all balanced superannuation funds |
| Moderate | 4.4% | 7.2% (Amethyst) | Stockspot’s portfolios beat all moderate superannuation funds |
If you’re not happy with your superannuation, you have a few options:
