Super Funds Claw Back Losses, Record Fifth Consecutive Month of Gains

Post by NeilMc on August 25, 2009 · Under Australian Economy, Business News, Super Funds, Wealth Management, investments · Comment

Superannuation (super) funds recorded their fifth consecutive month of gains in July, clawing back some of the losses caused by the global credit crisis over the last two years ,according to a report issued by a research firm.

On Monday research firm SuperRatings issued a report stating that the median balanced option fund returned 3.62 per cent in July.

“This is a strong positive result for superannuants as their account balances slowly start to recover the losses that have previously been suffered,” SuperRatings said in a statement.

Super Funds lost 8.64 per cent in the year ending July 31st as global equity markets felt the full brunt of the financial crisis.

During the five year period ending July 3st however, Super Funds have returned 5 per cent annually.

During that time frame, the best performing balanced fund was the OSF Super which returned 6.8 per cent a year, followed by the Catholic Super and the Buss (Q) which both produced a 6.7 per cent return each.

The research firm re-iterated the stance taken by the independent private research industry, and said that data released by Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s (APRA) which provided performance information, would not be useful for investors trying to gauge investment performance.

The research firm said the APRA data did not take account of investment options within a single fund.

“Our opinion is that although it was a quality release of detailed information, it cannot, and should not, be used as a meaningful tool to compare super fund investment performance. The APRA tables completely ignore the huge variances in investment strategies and objectives held by the funds, risk profiles (options) selected by members and distorts performance where a fund has a significant number of investment options on offer.” SuperRatings said.

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