The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has revealed the industry median annual fees for superannuation funds.
This information is partly designed to help superannuation savers judge whether their chosen fund is charging them too much.
This is important because fees eat into your returns and can have a 'material impact' on your retirement savings.
Let's investigate.
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Is your superannuation fund charging too much?
APRA has released the benchmark representative administration fees and expenses (BRAFE) for the 12 months to March 2025.
BRAFE represents the median administration fees and expenses charged to a representative member with a $50,000 account balance.
APRA has calculated a separate BRAFE for three types of superannuation products.
They are default MySuper funds, platform trustee-directed products (TDPs), and non-platform TDPs.
A platform TDP allows superannuation members to pick and choose their investments, such as ASX shares, ETFs, and managed funds.
Members can buy and sell their investments via the trading platform provided by their superannuation fund.
Over the 12 months to March 2025, the median BRAFE fee for MySuper superannuation products was 0.24932%.
For non-platform TDPs, the median fee was 0.2468%.
For platform TDPs, the median fee was 0.59%.
Further data from APRA shows that the medians for MySuper and non-platform TDPs have reduced, while platform TDP fees have gone up.
In the 12 months to June 2024, the median fees were 0.2715% for MySuper, 0.26326% for non-platform TDPs, and 0.5699% for platform TDPs.
These look like small percentages, but add up to significant dollar amounts as your superannuation savings grow.
And you pay these fees every year for several decades!
Say you're aged 50 and have the recommended amount of $296,000 in savings to be on track for a comfortable retirement.
If you have a platform TDP, the current median fee equals $1,746.40 per annum.
But you may be paying more than that, depending on which superannuation fund you have entrusted with your retirement savings.
So, it's worth comparing what you're paying to the industry median to ensure you're getting value for money.
How are super funds performing in FY25?
New data from Chant West shows the median Australian growth superannuation fund has delivered a total return of 5.8% in FY25 to date.
Total return means capital growth plus dividends.
Chant West defines a median growth fund as one with 61% to 80% allocation to growth assets such as international and ASX shares.
The median growth fund has provided an average total return of 8% per annum since compulsory superannuation was introduced in 1992.
The target return for a median growth fund is CPI plus 3.5%.
The median superannuation growth fund delivered a 9.1% total return in FY24.
