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<\/p>\nWithin these there are two buckets. The first and by far the biggest are the modern pooled investment options offered directly by big super funds such as HESTA, Hostplus, Aware and UniSuper.<\/p>\n
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These are widely used and together hold hundreds of billions of dollars. Both industry and retail super funds sit in this bucket, so you\u2019ll see retail fund names such as AMP and Insignia alongside the big industry fund players.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the second bucket, and this one matters because it\u2019s where the poorest performers showed up in this year\u2019s test: the platform funds. These are the adviser-linked platform products. These sit inside retail wraps such as AMP\u2019s North\/MyNorth and Insignia\u2019s offerings, along with Bendigo\u2019s investment menus. They\u2019re older-style products, often prescribed by advisers years ago.<\/p>\n
In total, these older style platforms \u2018only\u2019 hold about $19 billion, a fraction of the system compared with the $1.1 trillion sitting in MySuper defaults. But they matter because many of the people still in them are older advised clients, often stuck in products prescribed years ago that they haven\u2019t thought to review and their adviser hasn\u2019t flagged.<\/p>\n
And those products are expensive, charging as much as double the fees of the big funds, while often delivering worse performance, according to the report. My call to action: if you\u2019re in a legacy platform product, it\u2019s time to look into how it stacks up and whether it\u2019s still right for you.<\/p>\n
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There are several ways to make sure your super delivers the best bang for buck.Credit: Aresna Villanueva<\/p>\n
So the test isn\u2019t just about default funds any more. It\u2019s now shining a light across much more of the market. But there\u2019s a catch: the YourSuper tool you can use to compare still only lets you compare MySuper defaults. If you\u2019re in one of the broader products, the results sit in APRA\u2019s report, they\u2019re not in the easy comparison tool yet.<\/p>\n
The consumer win<\/p>\n
For people still working and often tipping into super without a second thought, the test is a big win. It stops funds from quietly underperforming while still happily charging fees. And it allows you to go look for yourself at the high performers and the lowest fees if you\u2019re considering a switch.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s also forced fees down into a much tighter range. A few years ago, plenty of funds were charging north of 1-1.5 per cent in total costs. Today, most MySuper defaults are in the 0.2-0.4 per cent range for admin fees (on a $50,000 balance), and total costs on balances of $200,000 are far more competitive or even homogenous than they used to be at 0.67-0.75 per cent.<\/p>\n
In other words, most default funds now sit in the same ballpark. You\u2019re not likely to be gouged if you\u2019re in a mainstream MySuper or big-fund choice option.<\/p>\n
That convergence is a direct result of the public pressure created by APRA\u2019s test. The regulator hasn\u2019t just told consumers which funds are failing, it has spooked trustees into cutting fees and improving returns so they don\u2019t end up on the naughty list.<\/p>\n
Retirees: left in the dark<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the part nobody talks about. If you\u2019re retired \u2013 or even on the retirement runway \u2013 APRA\u2019s performance test doesn\u2019t apply to you. The test only measures how funds perform while you\u2019re accumulating. It says nothing about how funds perform in the retirement phase, what fees you\u2019ll actually face, whether they\u2019ll deliver a steady income, or if they\u2019ll make retirement simple or bury you in red tape.<\/p>\n
That leaves retirees flying blind, with no government test pressing funds to lift their game. Many are still sitting in old platform products without even realising it, and those metrics aren\u2019t published anywhere. The cost of that silence can be huge: tens of thousands of dollars less to spend across a retirement.<\/p>\n
The performance test is brilliant at spotting who\u2019s failing in the classroom. But once you graduate into retirement? The teacher\u2019s gone home, and there\u2019s no report card at all.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s the real problem. Heading into retirement, it\u2019s still crucial to keep an eye on whether a fund delivers solid returns and fair fees. But that\u2019s only part of the story. It\u2019s also about whether the fund makes dealing with your money simple or a bureaucratic nightmare. Whether it offers useful products and services for the retirement phase too. And whether it treats retirees as valued members or as an afterthought.<\/p>\n
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And so, I remind you that I\u2019ve stepped into the gap with the launch two weeks ago of the \u201cepic retirement tick\u201d<\/a> powered by Chant West. The first announcement of funds delivering 12 out of 18 on our select in the retirement phase is on October 2.<\/p>\n The tick is designed to measure the things APRA doesn\u2019t: yes, performance and fees, but also whether a fund has developed retirement income options, how easy it makes the retirement phase to understand and navigate, and the quality of support it offers once you stop working. Because retirement is different \u2013 the risks are bigger, the stakes are higher, and the questions go far beyond \u201cdid you beat the benchmark?\u201d (Even though that\u2019s still important.)<\/p>\n If APRA\u2019s test tells you how funds perform when you\u2019re putting money in, the tick will tell you how they perform when you need to draw it down and actually use the services they offer.<\/p>\n After all, the whole point of super isn\u2019t just to build a big balance. It\u2019s to fund a decent life when you stop working.<\/p>\n Bec Wilson is author of the bestseller How to Have an Epic Retirement and the newly released Prime Time: 27 Lessons for the New Midlife<\/a>. She writes a weekly newsletter at epicretirement.net<\/a> and hosts the Prime Time<\/a> podcast.<\/p>\n Advice given in this article is general in nature and is not intended to influence readers\u2019 decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their own personal circumstances before making financial decisions.<\/p>\n