Industry super fund Hostplus has been named Fund of the Year by researcher SuperRatings for its “strong performance, competitive fees and focus on members”.
Hosplus manages $87 billion on behalf of 1.6 million workers, most of whom work in the hospitality and tourism sectors, though the fund is open to everyone.
While the returns of most of its competitors’ balanced investment options for the year to June 30 were negative, Hostplus’ balanced option, where 85 per cent of the fund’s members have their retirement savings, was the best performing with a return of 1.6 per cent.
David Elia, the chief executive of Hostplus, attributes the super fund’s success to its investment philosophy and member-first ethos.Credit:
SuperRatings’ figures show Hostplus’ balanced option was ranked first over the 10 years to June 30, with an average annual compound return of 9.74 per cent. It was the best performer over almost all time periods going back 20 years.
The recognition comes after the fund received some criticism that it was perhaps overstating the true value of its unlisted investments. Sam Sicilia, the fund’s chief investment officer, defended the accuracy of the stated returns, saying they were “rock solid”.
The fund was in the spotlight during April 20 to December 31, 2020, when the federal government allowed super fund members to withdraw up to $20,000 from their super accounts.
With the hospitality and tourism sectors hit particularly hard by job losses, there were fears the fund would have to sell some of its unlisted assets, perhaps at low prices, to raise sufficient funds to meet the withdrawal requests of members. Those fears turned out to be unfounded.
“Hostplus was competitive across the key metrics of net benefit, member servicing and engagement, as well as providing a broad offering from low-cost investing right through to a tailored retirement proposition,” says Kirby Rappell, the executive director of SuperRatings.
Alongside the super fund awards, Lonsec, which together with SuperRatings is part of the same company Lonsec Holdings, gave out its own awards across the broader managed and passive funds space.
Perpetual Asset Management won Lonsec’s overall Fund of the Year in recognition of its “well-established investment philosophy and process, as well as a long-standing and strong investment culture”. Perpetual also won Multi-Asset Fund of the Year.
Lorraine Robinson, the research executive director at Lonsec, says Perpetual is committed to its investment style and has maintained its approach through multiple investment cycles. Rob Adams, chief executive officer at Perpetual, described the win as a testament to its true-to-label approach.
Perpetual is known as a “value” manager, which means its favours investments in good companies with good management whose shares are trading at less that what Perpetual believes to be their true worth.
Lonsec also introduced a new category for its awards – Sustainable Fund of the Year – won by the Martin Currie Ethical Income Fund.
“The [Fund] excels at both environmental, social and governance and sustainability and has delivered consistent excess returns over the last few years,” Lonsec’s Robinson says.
- Advice given in this article is general in nature and is not intended to influence readers’ decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their own personal circumstances before making any financial decisions.
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