UniSuper has surpassed all other super funds in the country to be named Chant West Super Fund of the Year. QSuper took out the other big award of the night, Pension Fund of the Year.
In a big night for UniSuper, the super fund collected three awards, including Best Fund: Investments and Best Fund: Advice Services at Chant West’s seventh annual Super Fund Awards on 22 May 2019.
Sunsuper won two awards, picking up Best Fund: Member Services and Corporate Solutions Fund of the Year.
The other winners are:
– Best Fund: Integrity – joint winners First State Super and VicSuper
– Best Fund: Innovation – GuildSuper
– Best Fund: Insurance – NGS Super
– Best Fund: Longevity Product – Colonial First State FirstChoice Wholesale
– Specialist Fund of the Year – HESTA
– Advised Product of the Year – Netwealth.
The Chant West Super Fund Awards not only recognise excellence among super and pension funds but showcase industry best practice to help lift standards across the super industry and improve member outcomes.
The theme this year was: ‘It’s all about the members!’ recognising what super and pension funds are doing for their members to help them get the most from their super.
Brendan Burwood, CEO of Chant West Holdings Limited (Chant West’s parent company), said the team had been impressed with the willingness of good funds to embrace the lessons from the Royal Commission.
“Over the past two months our research team has been on the road visiting funds around the country. One of the advantages of this approach is that we get to meet the people behind the funds, we get to see how their organisation works, and most importantly, how they think. These are insights you simply can’t get from sitting at a desk reading a spreadsheet,” Mr Burwood said.
“The Royal Commission raised many important and appropriate questions for our industry, and the media intensified its focus to an unprecedented level. By conducting site visits and face-to-face interviews, our research reveals that the best funds embraced this period as an opportunity to improve their organisation and deliver better outcomes for their members.”
Chant West’s Head of Research Ian Fryer said the impression that came out of the Royal Commission and Productivity Commission was that the super industry had not been doing a good job for members, but on the investment side “the numbers suggest otherwise”.
“Looking at the past 20 years, we have had two full market cycles and two significant downturns, and the numbers still look great,” Mr Fryer said.
“The super industry as a whole has provided strong returns for its members. The strategy of using a well-diversified balanced fund to deliver investment returns that are meaningfully ahead of inflation has worked.
“The investment model seems to be working well, but in other areas we know we can, and indeed must, do better.
“This industry, and we as individuals in that industry, will only succeed if we fulfil our mandate to do what is best for members, and to direct our energies to that goal. This will improve member outcomes and improve the way we are regarded as an industry – that can only be good for our future.”
