Super satisfaction on the rise

By Penny Pryor
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine

After months of falls due to Covid-19, superannuation fund satisfaction rose 0.6 per cent in October to 61 per cent, according to the latest Roy Morgan Superannuation Satisfaction Report, with self-managed superannuation fund trustees also recovering some of their mojo.

Total fund satisfaction is still down 3.1 percentage points from a year ago but October saw the first month-on-month increase since the pandemic was first felt in Australia.

Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine told Industry Moves that while the recovery in superannuation satisfaction in October was not completely unexpected, the biggest surprise was how closely it tracked the recovery in other key economic indicators Roy Morgan measures.

"ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence has increased from 90.2 at the end of August and ended October at 99.9 - an increase of 9.7 points (+10.8%)," she said.

"During the same period Roy Morgan Business Confidence increased from 83.1 in August to 98.7 in October - an increase of 15.6 points (+18.8%). The good news is that both indicators have continued to increase strongly since during November and into December."

Top spot

Customer satisfaction

Satisfaction with the financial performance of SMSFs rose by 1.5 per cent during the month.

"A long range chart of Customer Satisfaction with superannuation funds [above] shows self-managed funds are consistently the top performers over the long-term since the Global Financial Crisis (2007-09)," Levine said.

However, Levine said that since late 2017, Public Sector Funds have consistently challenged SMSFs for top spot.

Satisfied SMSFs

Customer satisfaction with the financial performance of SMSFs is closely related to their funds under management and reacts quickly to market movements.

"The decline in satisfaction with self-managed funds is steeper than any other type of fund since COVID-19 hit Australia, but the increase in October as markets have recovered is also of a larger magnitude as markets have strengthened measurably in recent months," Levine told Industry Moves.