Australia\u2019s superannuation sector has largely completed reporting its FY25-26 investment returns, revealing another year of solid gains despite heightened geopolitical tensions, persistent inflation and bouts of market volatility.<\/p>\n
While most funds fell short of the exceptional returns recorded in FY24-25, retail funds generally outperformed their industry peers<\/a> on headline returns, led by Colonial First State\u2019s 12.74 per cent MySuper growth return. \u00a0<\/p>\n High Growth UniSuper AMP Super Rest AustralianSuper MLC Cbus Australian Retirement Trust (ART) Aware Super \u00a0<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s biggest funds post solid returns<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s two largest super funds \u2013 AustralianSuper and Australian Retirement Trust-\u00a0 both reported lower returns than the previous financial year, reflecting more challenging investment conditions.<\/p>\n AustralianSuper returned 9.7 per cent in its Balanced option and 11.5 per cent in its High Growth option, compared with 9.5 per cent and 10.6 per cent respectively in FY24-25.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Australian Retirement Trust (ART) returned 7.9 per cent in its Balanced pool and 9.2 per cent in its High Growth pool, down from 11.2 per cent and 11.9 per cent the previous year.<\/p>\n AustralianSuper chief investment officer Shaun Manuell said the result came after a year marked by global uncertainty.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a strong result and a great outcome for members. Strong long-term performance is what makes the biggest difference to members in retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n ART chief investment officer Ian Patrick said the fund remained focused on long-term outcomes rather than short-term market movements.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the past decade, we\u2019ve delivered consistently strong returns for members, reflecting the discipline of our long-term investment strategy. We remain focused on a diversified strategy that aims to grow our members\u2019 retirement savings over time.\u201d<\/p>\n Industry funds remain resilient<\/p>\n Among the major industry funds, Rest delivered the strongest flagship diversified result, maintaining its Growth option at 9.8 per cent while improving its High Growth option to 11.7 per cent.<\/p>\n HESTA\u2019s MySuper Balanced Growth option returned 9.4 per cent, Cbus\u2019 Growth option delivered 9.2 per cent and Aware Super\u2019s flagship High Growth option returned 8.5 per cent.<\/p>\n HESTA said international sharemarkets helped add around $10 billion collectively to members\u2019 balances through savings and investment returns during FY26, while its MySuper Balanced Growth option recorded a fourth consecutive year above 9 per cent.<\/p>\n \u201cOur considered, diversified approach helped us deliver a strong financial year result for our more than one million members amid a challenging geopolitical environment,\u201d chief investment officer Sonya Sawtell-Rickson said.<\/p>\n Rest chief investment officer Michael Clancy said global equities and private markets had again driven performance.<\/p>\n \u201cMarkets are being buffeted by short-term cyclical changes, such as oil price movements and interest rate cycles, and long-term structural changes, such as geopolitical forces and step-change AI productivity opportunities and disruptions.\u201d<\/p>\n Aware Super head of investment strategy Michael Winchester said remaining invested had continued to reward members over the long term.<\/p>\n \u201cSuper is a long-term investment and long-term thinking matters. Our High Growth option has compounded at more than 9 per cent per annum over a decade, or a total investment return of 150 per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n Cbus chief investment officer Leigh Gavin also pointed to diversification as the key contributor to returns.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has emphasised the importance of staying invested, and really shown the success of our diversified investment model.\u201d<\/p>\n Retail funds lead the performance tables<\/p>\n Retail funds generally posted the strongest headline returns across the sector.<\/p>\n Colonial First State (CFS) led the major retail funds, with its FirstChoice Employer Super MySuper Growth fund returning 12.74 per cent and its Balanced equivalent returning 10.81 per cent.<\/p>\n AMP followed with a 12.1 per cent return from its Future Directions High Growth option, while MLC\u2019s High Growth option returned 10.2 per cent.<\/p>\n Mercer Super also recorded a fourth consecutive year of double-digit returns, with its SmartPath default lifecycle cohorts for members aged between 18 and 52 returning between 10.0 per cent and 10.6 per cent.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know our members are looking for confidence and consistency, particularly in an environment of heightened global volatility. Our results this year again reflect a strong focus on delivering outcomes for our members, supported by a disciplined approach to investing,\u201d CFS chief executive Kelly Power said.<\/p>\n Mercer Super chief investment officer Graeme Miller said the fund\u2019s global diversification had helped members navigate another volatile year.<\/p>\n \u201cOur investment strategy, underpinned by Mercer\u2019s global investment perspective and insights, has steered a steady course for our one million members, during a period of significant economic and geopolitical volatility.\u201d<\/p>\n AI and diversification continue to drive returns<\/p>\n Despite a more volatile year, investment leaders across both industry and retail funds pointed to the same themes underpinning performance.<\/p>\n AustralianSuper said listed equities, particularly those benefiting from artificial intelligence, alongside private equity and private credit, drove returns.<\/p>\n ART said global sharemarkets were the strongest-performing asset class while its growing allocation to private markets continued supporting long-term outcomes.<\/p>\n CFS chief investment officer Jonathan Armitage said AI was creating new investment opportunities beyond developed markets.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re seeing new opportunities emerge as the development and deployment of technologies such as AI gathers pace, particularly as adoption grows among developing economies.\u201d<\/p>\n MLC chief investment officer Dan Farmer said equities, alternatives and private credit all contributed strongly during the year.<\/p>\n \u201cThis financial year\u2019s returns have been driven in large part by equities but also strong performance in alternatives and private credit.\u201d<\/p>\n Although most funds reported lower returns than FY24-25, executives across the sector said diversified portfolios, structural investment themes and long-term discipline remained central to delivering retirement outcomes as geopolitical risks and artificial intelligence continue reshaping global markets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s superannuation sector has largely completed reporting its FY25-26 investment returns, revealing another year of solid gains despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,176,67363,61,60,174,175,4626,51320,4627],"class_list":["post-538975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-financial-results","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-super","tag-super-funds","tag-superannuation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Among industry funds,<\/a> Rest topped the major diversified options with a 9.8 per cent Growth return, while Australia\u2019s two largest super funds both delivered positive but more subdued results.<\/p>\n
\nFY25-26 performance<\/p>\n
\n13.1%<\/p>\n
\n12.1%<\/p>\n
\n11.7%<\/p>\n
\n11.5%<\/p>\n
\n10.2%<\/p>\n
\n10%<\/p>\n
\n9.2%<\/p>\n
\n8.54%<\/p>\n