Super Fierce unveils super fund comparison index

Australian wealth advice platform, Super Fierce, has announced the launch of its Fierce Performers Index (FPI) that measures the performance and consistency of over 350 superannuation funds based on over 2,000 investment options.

The index is Australia’s first to measure almost the entirety of the market, taking into account performance across several market cycles and investment options to assist Australians in making informed financial decisions with their retirement savings.

The FPI also aimed to address certain issues raised by the industry regarding other agency ratings and the Your Future, Your Super (YFYS) comparison tool, such as analysing performance in various time periods since 2003 not just a single period of eight years, adjusting for bias by assessing performance in different types of market conditions and considering performance across different investing options.

“Identifying the highest-performing superannuation fund through basic comparisons is a daunting and complicated task for the average Australian consumer,” Trenna Robert, founder and CEO of Super Fierce, said.

“We created the Fierce Performers Index to provide all Australians with an affordable way to find and select a super fund that will suit their individual needs, leaving them substantially better off in retirement.

“Rankings, ratings, and the multitude of other sources of information are difficult to find and understand, and they are of course not tailored to an individual’s circumstances or preferences. With the current state of the financial advice industry further exacerbating this, we knew Australians needed a better way to select the right fund for them.”

Super Fierce also announced the top 15 super funds or ‘Fierce Performers’ for the 2022 financial year that outperformed in all categories measured by the index, including High Growth, Growth, Balanced, Moderate, Conservative, Australian Shares, Global Shares, Ethical and Indexed.

These funds included Australian Retirement Trust, AustralianSuper, CBUS Super, HESTA, Hostplus, NGS Super and Unisuper.

“APRA’s Your Future, Your Super does what it is meant to do by highlighting the poorest performing super funds. But it was never designed for everyday Australians looking for guidance on choosing a fund that is likely to perform well in the future,” Craig Swanger, co-founder of Super Fierce and former global CIO for Macquarie Group, said.

“This is because, to date, we haven’t had any proof that historical performance can reliably predict future performance.

“But our data has uncovered that past outperformance can be a predictor of future performance – so long as you analyse a fund’s performance across multiple market cycles and investment options.”