Industry super fund Hostplus has come out on top in this year’s Rainmaker Information SelectingSuper Awards.

One of the largest superannuation funds in Australia, with more than 1 million members and $37 billion in funds under management, Hostplus took out five major award categories, including Fund of the Year, Best in Show – MySuper Product, Best Long-term Performance, Best MySuper Performance – Risk Weighted and Best Performance – Fixed Interest.

The awards recognise the best super funds in Australia, as well as the top-performing pension funds and retirement products.

Hostplus was last named fund of the year in 2014. Earlier this year, Rainmaker rival Chant West also nominated a Hostplus fund as the best performer.

Rainmaker said Hostplus had regularly been a high achiever in SelectingSuper’s monthly performance tables across both the MySuper and personal product categories, generating exceptional returns for its members. Its Hostplus Balanced default fund has returned more than 11 per cent per annum over the past five years.

Winners are chosen based on research using Rainmaker’s database of research and long-term profiling of the superannuation industry.

Choose well to retire well

Other major award winners included AvSuper, which took out the Members’ Choice Award for the second year in succession, for being best able to engage a community around superannuation.

Rainmaker research director Alex Dunnin said industry super funds continue to surprise on the upside, achieving average returns of more than 9 per cent in 2017-18.

The list of winners comes with a recommendation from Rainmaker that Australians need to choose their superannuation fund wisely.

“If they do so, members can be confident they will retire comfortably,” Mr Dunnin said.

“But if they choose poorly, they could be missing out on tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential retirement savings.”

Other major category winners at the SelectingSuper Awards:

Best in Show – MySuper LifeStage Product: Sunsuper for Life Business

Best Personal Choice Product: AustralianSuper Personal Plan

Best Retirement Product: CareSuper Pension

Best Performance – Australian Equities: Catholic Super

Best Performance – International Equities: Vision Super Saver

Best Performance – Property: Prime Super

Best Value Insurance in Super: IAG & NRMA Super Plan & MLC

Best Millennial Super Product: HESTA

Investment Leadership Award: HESTA

Members’ Choice Award: AvSuper

** The New Daily is funded by Industry Super Holdings, and a group of 16 industry super funds that includes AustralianSuper, Hostplus, Hesta and CareSuper