Industry Super Funds? Any good compared to typical Super Funds?

[beachy]

Anyone in an industry super fund? How has it performed for you over the past 5 years or so? Worthwhile or not much different from a typical super fund?

I'm with MLC and my super fund uses my super to pay for I think trauma insurance and income protection but I haven't really seen any great returns over the past 5 years.

Comments & suggestions?

 

[Phar Lap]

REST is my fund that has performed quite well.

Wife is a member of First State Super which does well also and low fees.

Both have insurance as options and you can switch strategy readily.

 

[bashworth]

I'm with Vision Super which has averaged around 9% over the last 5 years with the balanced option. Which i am happy with.

Decent return without any of the worries of running a SMSF!

Life insurance seems pretty good when you are young but not so attractive as you near retirement.

 

[Snoopy]

Anyone in an industry super fund? How has it performed for you over the past 5 years or so? Worthwhile or not much different from a typical super fund?

I'm with MLC and my super fund uses my super to pay for I think trauma insurance and income protection but I haven't really seen any great returns over the past 5 years.

Comments & suggestions?

Your Super Fund returns can be impacted by a number of factors including the assets class, fund manager and fees. Most funds provide a wide range of funds to choose from. Spend some time researching what suits you best. Usually if you have long time before accessing Super people choose higher risk such as shares.

Industry funds do have lower fees which can be up to 1% cheaper for basically the same Fund type as the MLC (owned by NAB) or other Bank funds.

The Banks have started offering lower fee funds as well eg Essential Super with CBA.

Super fees are costing Australians billions more than it needs to but most people don't look into their Super until it's too late.

 

[marty998]

Very happy with Australian Super.

If you don't like the balanced option you can create your own asset allocation and you can also buy ASX200 shares directly too.

Pension was quite easy / idiot proof to set up for my Dad as well.

 

[sash]

Second that....

Australian Super is very good. You can also use it as a Umbrella fund.

By this mean you have many choices for funds.

I has 151k about two years ago in my AS component...have managed to switch the fund based on where I think it will perform - ie. cash, fixed interest, direct property, or shares. The balance is almost 191k now.

I also have a work related super and doing the same thing.

Very happy with Australian Super.

If you don't like the balanced option you can create your own asset allocation and you can also buy ASX200 shares directly too.

Pension was quite easy / idiot proof to set up for my Dad as well.

 

[Scott No Mates]

The majority of my super sits with CBus - it is the fund for the construction industry and is a major player in the industry providing development funding.

Consistently returns over 10%. From memory I have only seen two years with a loss in over 30 years of its existence.

You can purchase income protection insurance outside of super (usually tax deductible).

FWIW I have been with several retail funds - all with pathetic returns. So I steer clear of those.

 

[Mr. Fabulous]

I'm with MLC and my super fund uses my super to pay for I think trauma insurance and income protection but I haven't really seen any great returns over the past 5 years.

Industry Funds are like retail funds, some are good, some aren't. You haven't got Trauma cover in super, because you can't get Trauma in super. You *can* have a Life policy with linked Trauma that is held outside super, but not many people have these.

It's likely you have Total & Permanent Disability, though.

 

[Mr. Fabulous]

Industry funds do have lower fees which can be up to 1% cheaper for basically the same Fund type as the MLC (owned by NAB) or other Bank funds.

Not true. Most Industry Fund fees are pretty close to Retail Funds.

 

[hugh72]

Another vote for Australian Super, it has consistently had good returns, lower fees than the retail fund I was in previously and some default life insurance. You also have the Option of an balanced fund or one where you can control the shares you hold directly which is good for people looking for extra control

 

[Snoopy]

Not true. Most Industry Fund fees are pretty close to Retail Funds.

Definitely true - majority of assets held in Retails funds are are on much higher fees than Industry funds. Retail funds are now offering more cost competitive options but portion of Funds is low.

Fees charged on Super are a total rip off.

 

[wombat777]

Fees charged on Super are a total rip off.

I might eventually rollover some of my super into an SMSF, with some of it in property and some of it in Exchange Traded Funds. The fees seem much lower.

Would also keep a small portion of my super in a regular employer super fund primarily to retain the life insurance benefits.

 

[geoffw]

I might eventually rollover some of my super into an SMSF, with some of it in property and some of it in Exchange Traded Funds. The fees seem much lower.

Would also keep a small portion of my super in a regular employer super fund primarily to retain the life insurance benefits.

Audit and accounting fees for an SMSF can be high.

Insurance is good when you want it. But at least one industry fund deducts insurance premiums by default- it's opt out rather than opt in. Young people with part time jobs and small SMSF balances can quickly see those balances disappear with insurance premiums for policies they don't really need.

 

[Mr. Fabulous]

Definitely true - majority of assets held in Retails funds are are on much higher fees than Industry funds.

Yeah, no it isn't.

 

[MTR]

I recall reading a couple of articles on super with comparisons on performance of retail and industry super funds and showed that for xx years industry funds outperformed retail. This was a couple of years ago now.

Whether this is the case today no idea??? Google should help with this.

 

[hugh72]

I haven't compared the 2 recently but when I did there was a substantial difference between Retail and Industry funds. The industry funds with some exceptions had much lower fees and consistently better returns IMO

 

[Tillie]

I have super in 3 different super funds Australian super being one of them. Two others are large companies' specific 'industry superfunds' with really low fees. Returns for all of them have been similar, quite good. Only GFC caused a little hiccup, but I have 'high growth/risk' option for each of them. All of them have well and truly recovered from GFC for ages ago.

I have insurances only with the one that my current employer is linked to.

My strategy has been to keep super heavily invested in shares to balance my outside of super property portfolio. Only problem with super is that personally I can not touch my super for 20 years... And been thinking lately about retirement within next 5 years, if not sooner.

 

[Scott No Mates]

Only problem with super is that personally I can not touch my super for 20 years... And been thinking lately about retirement within next 5 years, if not sooner.

What's wrong with that? Super is going to become available to you later in life when you have 'consumed' the money you have made elsewhere which has funded your early retirement - part of the overall scheme of thinking is that you don't need all your money on day one of retirement as you're going to be retired for a long time (in most cases), so long term hold assets will only grow by the time you need access to them.

 

[marty998]

What's wrong with that? Super is going to become available to you later in life when you have 'consumed' the money you have made elsewhere which has funded your early retirement - part of the overall scheme of thinking is that you don't need all your money on day one of retirement as you're going to be retired for a long time (in most cases), so long term hold assets will only grow by the time you need access to them.

Yep. It's a good thing if you can let it silently compound away for 20 years without it being needed in that time.