Super fund satisfaction improves since low in July 2023 with strong performances from HESTA, Unisuper & REST Super
New data from Roy Morgan’s Superannuation Satisfaction Report shows an overall super fund satisfaction with financial performance rating of 66.7% in January 2024 – an increase of 1.7% points since the low reached six months ago in July 2023 (65.0%).
Despite hitting a low point in July 2023 superannuation satisfaction with financial performance is still significantly higher than the long-term average of 58.3% from 2007-2024 and higher than at any time prior to the pandemic years of 2021-22 when the measure was at record highs.
The recovery in satisfaction ratings over the last six months is no surprise as the ASX200 closed at a record high of 7,680.7 at the end of January, up 270.3 points (+3.6%) since the end of July 2023. The ASX200 had previously peaked at 7,628.9 on August 13, 2021, and again, almost as high, at 7,558.1 on February 3, 2022, when satisfaction with superannuation funds reached record highs above 70%.
The period covered by these ratings is from August 2023 – January 2024 which included one RBA interest rates increase in November 2023 of +0.25% lifting official interest rates to 4.35% - the highest official interest rates for 12 years. The increases have been caused by the higher-than-expected inflation readings during 2021-2023 – although inflation has now fallen to 3.4% - the lowest since November 2021 (3.2%).
Satisfaction with financial performance of superannuation funds: 2007-2024
Base: Australians 14+ with work based or personal superannuation.
Customer satisfaction is up for Self-Managed and Industry Funds up significantly from July 2023
There has been improvement across the different categories of super funds since the middle of last year with improvements in customer satisfaction for Self-Managed Funds and Industry Funds the standout performers with significant increases.
A standout performer over the last six months has been Self-Managed Funds which have increased their customer satisfaction by 2.4% points to 76.8% and clearly the highest customer satisfaction of any of the four super fund categories. This is the highest level of customer satisfaction for Self-Managed Funds for nearly two years since April 2022.
Customer satisfaction for Industry Funds in January 2024 has also increased significantly on six months ago, up by 1.8% points to 68.6%.
Overall customer satisfaction for Public Sector Funds is up by 0.9% points from six months ago to 72.1% - while the customer satisfaction for Retail Funds is virtually unchanged and up by only 0.4% points to 60% and once again clearly the lowest customer satisfaction of any of the four categories.
The report’s findings are from Roy Morgan Single Source, Australia’s most trusted consumer survey, compiled by in-depth interviews with over 60,000 Australians each year.
Satisfaction with financial performance of different type of super funds
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says customer satisfaction with superannuation funds (66.7%) has continued to improve in recent months as the ASX200 stock index has increased to new record highs after reaching a recent low of 65% in July 2023:
“Roy Morgan’s superannuation customer satisfaction ratings for the six months to January 2024 show overall industry satisfaction at 66.7%, an increase of 1.7% points since the post-pandemic low of 65% reached in July 2023. Overall customer satisfaction with financial performance is virtually unchanged from a year ago and is over 9% points above the long-term average over the last 17 years of 58.2%.
“The increase in customer satisfaction over the last six months has been powered by a record-setting ASX200. The stock index closed at a record high of 7,680.7 at the end of January and has continued to increase over recent weeks – recently closing above 7,700 points for the first time. Even more impressively, the ASX200 has increased by over 1,300 points (+20.4%) since hitting a recent low of 6,433.4 just over 18 months ago on June 20, 2022, in a period of rising interest rates.
“The improvement in customer satisfaction since July 2023 has been driven by the increases for Self-Managed Super Funds, up 2.4% points to 76.8% – the highest customer satisfaction of any category, and Industry Super Funds, up 1.8% points to 68.6%.
“Several industry funds have performed exceptionally well in recent months led by HESTA (an impressive increase in customer satisfaction of 4.5% points since July 2023), REST Super (+4.5% points), Aware (+2.3% points), Australian Retirement Trust (+1.8% points), AustralianSuper (+1.6% points) and UniSuper (+1.2% points).
“UniSuper continues to be the superannuation fund with the highest customer satisfaction of all with the fast-rising HESTA in second place and just ahead of HOSTPLUS and AustralianSuper. All four of these funds have customer satisfaction above 70%.
“In recent years, many superannuation funds have merged or announced their intention to merge. These mergers include Unisuper taking over Australian Catholic Super, HESTA merging with Mercy Super, AustralianSuper taking over LUCRF, Active Super merging with Vision Super, HOSTPLUS merging with Statewide.
In addition, Sunsuper and QSuper formalised their merger to become Australian Retirement Trust (ART) just over two years ago in February 2022 and then the APSS merged with ART a few months later in April 2022. Looking forward ART is set to complete mergers this year with Alcoa Super and AvSuper in the next few months.
“Roy Morgan has extensive data on how these mergers and acquisitions affect the customer satisfaction of the super funds involved. A key message raised by customers is the importance of communication and a smooth transition process for the members throughout.
“As indicated above, the superannuation industry is continuing to consolidate with larger players taking steps to increase their size and clout and the amount of assets they have under management. In an increasingly competitive industry, it is more important than ever before for larger and more complex superannuation funds to maintain a high levels of customer satisfaction and market-leading investment returns.”
For comments or more information about Roy Morgan’s superannuation data please contact:
Roy Morgan Enquiries
Office: +61 (3) 9224 5309
askroymorgan@roymorgan.com
Related research findings
For further in-depth analysis, view the Superannuation Satisfaction Report.
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About Roy Morgan
Roy Morgan is Australia’s largest independent Australian research company, with offices in each state, as well as in the U.S. and U.K. A full-service research organisation, Roy Morgan has over 80 years’ experience collecting objective, independent information on consumers.
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 |
