Queensland conquers! These are the top pension and super funds in the country

A leading super fund comparison site announced the winners for its annual Chant West Super Fund Awards on Thursday which are put in place to recognise and celebrate excellence in the industry. For eight years running, Chant West has compared products while focussing on long-term sustainability for members to find the top funds across 12 different categories.

The awards cover a range of different areas for members to focus on when choosing a fund and are known to cement the reliability status of many repeat winners. And this year it did just that, as the two main awards were taken out by top Queensland-established super funds. For the second year running, QSuper won the Pension Fund of the Year award, making it the fifth time overall the fund has won for its market-leading Retirement Income account. Meanwhile, SunSuper took out Fund of the Year for the third time in four years.

QSuper also won the Best Fund: Investments award – a title which the fund’s chief of member services Jason Murray said is particularly important in light of the current volatile market. Murray added that the awards were a welcome recognition of the fund’s strong performance which includes an average 8.24 per cent return for members on the Retirement Income account.

“It has been a year of unexpected challenges and the difficulties many Australians are currently facing is a strong reminder of our industry’s core purpose. We operate solely to provide our members financial security in retirement,” he said. “This award has particular importance to us because it’s at retirement that proof of our investment strategies and member focus is most evident. It’s at that point when our members rely on us more than ever before.”

Finalists of the Pension Fund of the Year included AMP, CFS FirstChoice Wholesale, Australian Super, First State, Rest, TelstraSuper, VicSuper, SunSuper and UniSuper. Meanwhile, Fund of the Year saw finalists such as AustralianSuper, Cbus, QSuper, HESTA and LGIAsuper. Other winners included CFS First Choice for Longevity Service, Cbus for being the Specialist Fund of the Year, NGS Super for Best Insurance, Netwealth Accelerator for Advised Product of the Year and VicSuper for Best Fund: Integrity.

The awards come off the back of fellow comparison site SuperRatings’ 2020 awards which were announced late last year and saw both top winners defend their titles as QSuper once again took out Pension Fund of the Year while SunSuper was also named Fund of the Year.

Chant West is a research, data insights and technology company that helps individuals compare products in a simple way while focussing on lifting standards and showcasing the best practices in the superannuation and financial advisor industries. This year, due to the special circumstances surrounding social distancing laws, the annual awards were held via a live stream event online which can be found here alongside the full list of winners.