Brighter Super shines as Queensland’s top-performing MySuper option in an industry fund

25 July 2023

Brighter Super’s MySuper option returned 10.62%* in the 12 months to the end of June, giving it the highest return for a Queensland industry fund and the fifth highest return nationally, according to the SuperRatings SR50 MySuper rankings for the 12 months to 30 June 2023**.

This investment result is reflective of similar strong performance across Brighter Super’s suite of investment options.

Ten Brighter Super accumulation options and seven pension options finished in the top five best performing options in their category, according to SuperRatings.

“The strong returns have been driven by the recovery in equity markets,’’ Brighter Super Chief Investment Officer Mark Rider said. “Australian equities are up sharply over the past financial year and returns from international equities have been even stronger.’’  

Mr Rider said Brighter Super had been overweight in listed equities relative to its major peers and underweight in private equity in the MySuper option. Its infrastructure and credit portfolios also performed strongly.  

“There has been consistency across the performance of the fund,’’ Mr Rider said.  

“In addition to having the right bias in the portfolio towards listed equities and away from private equity, solid performance across all asset classes, relative to the appropriate benchmark, supported our performance versus our peers,’’ Mr Rider said.  

Overall, Brighter Super’s MySuper (10.62% return), Balanced (10.60% return), Stable (5.75% return) and Secure (3.99% return) investment options were all ranked fifth in their categories by SuperRatings.

Brighter Super’s Growth investment option (12.61% return) was ranked sixth in terms of performance in its category by SuperRatings.

Brighter Super’s Diversified Fixed Interest investment option ranked second in its category, while the Property fund ranked in the top 10.

Compared to peers, Brighter Super’s MySuper option outperformed other Queensland-based industry funds in the SuperRatings 50 MySuper index.

In pension accounts, Brighter Super’s Stable investment option finished fourth in terms of performance in its category with a 6.46% return, while the Secure investment option was fifth with a 4.44% return.

The Diversified Fixed Interest pension option finished in the SuperRatings top five, in terms of returns in its category, while the property option finished in the top 10.

The strong performance across the accumulation and pension options follows Brighter Super’s successful mergers between LGIAsuper, Energy Super and Suncorp Super, to become the fourth biggest non-government financial services entity in Queensland.  

Brighter Super CEO Kate Farrar said the previous merger of LGIAsuper and Energy Super in 2021 had enabled the fund to make improvements in its investment capabilities, take advantage of market conditions and set members up for growth. 

The merger of LGIAsuper and Energy Super had occurred at an “opportune’’ time, enabling the best elements of both funds to be combined and for the portfolio to be configured for the market environment it was moving into.

Brighter Super’s MySuper option was last year judged by Money magazine to be the Best-Value MySuper Product for 2023 in its ‘Best of the Best’ awards.  

Research by KPMG named Brighter Super as the second-fastest growing fund in the nation, in terms of funds under management and membership growth, behind Australian Retirement Trust.   

Brighter Super grew to $29 billion in funds under management for over 250,000 members, in June 2023, after its merger with Suncorp Super.

LGIAsuper Trustee (ABN 94 085 088 484) (AFSL 230511) (the Trustee) as trustee for LGIAsuper (ABN 23 053 121 564) (RSE R1000160) (the Fund) trading as Brighter Super. Brighter Super products are issued by the Trustee on behalf of the Fund. Brighter Super may refer to the Trustee or LGIAsuper as the context may be. 

This article provides general information only and does not take into account your individual objectives, financial situation or needs. As such, you should consider whether it is appropriate in light of your own objectives, financial situation and needs prior to making any decision. You should consult a licensed financial advisor if you require advice which does take into account your personal financial circumstances. You should also obtain and consider the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) before making any decision to acquire any products. A Target Market Determination (TMD) is a document that outlines the target market a product has been designed for. Find the PDSs and TMDs at https://www.brightersuper.com.au/about-us/governance. 

*Returns are based on daily unit prices available to members. They are net of investment fees and taxes, and net of the 0.18% administration fee charged by the Fund.

 **SuperRatings Fund Crediting Rate Survey, June 2023. Refer to superratings.com.au for further information about these results, including how it calculates investment returns. The information is current as at the date of the SuperRatings Survey. Investment returns are only one factor to be considered when deciding whether to invest. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.