Super

Super funds are increasingly adding thematic passive products to their self-directed investment options as they face new competition from Gen Z focused start-ups – but the ultimate theme is still on the outs.

Australian Retirement Trust (ART) and QIC are continuing the trend of big funds investing in affordable housing, working in conjunction with community housing provider Brisbane Housing Company.

A big chunk of super funds are now in “limp mode” as their buffer against the performance test evaporates. And sustainable investing is getting harder when even tobacco exclusions eat up the tracking error budget.

Super fund members have been “spared the worst”, while the outperformance of the top ten funds was generated by active management and chunky allocations to private markets.

Hostplus has topped the keenly anticipated performance charts for balanced super funds for the year to June, as well as the past 10 years, SuperRatings has confirmed. Only three funds showed positive returns for the 12 months.

“When it comes to super, all the evidence points to the more you pay, the less you get. There’s lots of reasons for that, the most fundamental of which is that active management really struggles to outperform the market.”

Qantas Super has made more green moves across its portfolio by tipping $50 million into a new fund targeting companies keyed to the tidal wave of investment into emissions reduction technologies.

Super fund data companies are rushing to beat deadlines for June 30 figures, with heightened interest from industry participants and members. The median balanced fund was minus 3.3 per cent, SuperRatings said.

The performance test for Choice products has been paused, and the Albanese Government has launched a sweeping review into the Your Future, Your Super (YFYS) reforms. So what comes next?

Rest has flashed its sustainable and private markets credentials with a stake in AMP Capital’s schmick redevelopment of 50 Bridge Street.

Calvert Research and Management has seen its decarbonization mandate with Rest expanded to the fund’s Australian equities portfolio.

A new report from CEM Benchmarking shows that the Your Future Your Super (YFYS) performance test lifts system-wide outcomes. But size of fund is no silver bullet.