Industry Funds increasing lead in satisfaction over Retail Funds – Unisuper the top performer
Over the last 12 months industry super funds increased their lead over retail funds for member satisfaction. In May 2019, industry funds scored 62.5% satisfaction with financial performance, well above retail funds with 56.5%. This latest lead in satisfaction for industry funds of 6.0% points is an increase from the 1.8% points lead they held 12 months ago. The best performer across all major industry and retail was Unisuper with 70.9%, closely followed by Tasplan on 69.6%.
These results are from the newly released Roy Morgan report ‘Satisfaction with Financial Performance of Superannuation in Australia’, May 2019 edition. The data in this latest report represents some of the findings from Roy Morgan’s Single Source survey which is based on in-depth interviews conducted face-to-face with over 50,000 consumers per annum in their homes, including over 30,000 with superannuation. The report shows trended data covering the last 12 years. The latest results shown here are based on interviews conducted in the six months to May 2019.
Satisfaction with Retail Funds falling further behind
The following chart shows that in six months to May 2019, the average member satisfaction for retail funds was 56.5%, a decrease of 3.7% points from the same period 12 months ago (60.2%). Over the same period, industry funds improved by 0.5% points from 62.0% in 2018 to 62.5% in 2019. In 2018 satisfaction with retail funds was 1.8% points below that of industry funds and this gap has now increased to 6.0% points.
Satisfaction with Financial Performance of Superannuation - Industry Funds vs Retail Funds
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), Dec 2017 - May 2018, n = 25,131; Dec 2018 - May 2019, n = 24,712. Base: Australians 14+ with superannuation
Industry funds dominate the top 12 performers
In May 2019, 10 of the top 12 performing retail and industry funds, based on member satisfaction with their financial performance were industry funds, the highest rating was for Unisuper with 70.9%, followed by Tasplan on 69.6%. The only two retail funds to make it to the top 12 were Macquarie with 66.6% and Mercer on 64.3%. The top 12 are by no means a uniform group, ranging from 70.9% member satisfaction down to only 58.2% for Sunsuper.
The lowest satisfaction for major super funds beyond the 12 best performers were the AMP (49.3%), ASGARD (50.9%) and BT (52.2%).
The following chart shows that the biggest improvements in satisfaction among the top 12 over the last year were from Mercer (up 8.9% points), Macquarie (up 3.5% points) and First State Super (up 3.1% points). The fund showing the largest decline was Catholic Super, which was down 10.9% points.
Satisfaction with Financial Performance of Superannuation - Top 12 Performers Retail and Industry Funds
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia). Dec 2017 - May 2018, n = 25,131; Dec 2018 - May 2019, n = 24,712. Base: Australians 14+ with superannuation.
Norman Morris, Industry Communications Director, Roy Morgan, says:
“Understanding how superannuation members feel about the performance of their fund is likely to be more important than the published performance tables in a market where there is limited engagement and where figures can be very confusing. The overall assessment of satisfaction with financial performance by fund members clearly ranks the industry funds ahead of retail funds similar to the rankings given on performance tables. This survey however has the added advantage of being able to understand the members behind the ratings rather the simply ranking the performance of the funds.
“As superannuation is a very long term process, it is very likely that over a number of decades there will be the potential for a large number of ranking changes. This will present a major challenge for funds to remain in top position over such a long period.
“The data used in this release only covers a small part of the in-depth information we have been collecting from superannuation members over the last two decades. To understand more holistically about superannuation and how it fits in with all the other consumer finance products, ask Roy Morgan.”
For comments or more information please contact:
Suela Qemal, General Manager - Financial Services & Consulting
Office: +61 (3) 9629 6888
Suela.Qemal@roymorgan.com
Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
