In this guide
Important: Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance. The returns that super funds achieve will change over time and readers should continue to monitor their fund’s performance.
All information on SuperGuide is general in nature and does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider whether any information on SuperGuide is appropriate for you before acting on it. If SuperGuide refers to a financial product you should obtain the relevant product disclosure statement (PDS) or seek personal financial advice before making any investment decisions.
In this article you can discover the top 10 performing Balanced super funds over 1 year and, more importantly, 10 years. We recommend that you also read our explanatory article on the five main risk categories to help you compare the different risk categories that super investment options fall into.
What is a Balanced investment option?
Investment options with a 41–60% allocation to growth assets are termed Balanced by Chant West, a research company that has been analysing super fund performance for more than 20 years.
Balanced investment options may appeal to people who want a more balanced mix of growth and defensive assets.
Many super funds label their investment options as Balanced and in SuperGuide's research these investment options can have between 49% and 80% of growth assets. Investment options that have between 61% and 80% of growth assets are classified as Growth category.
Good to know
Investments such as shares, property, infrastructure and private equity are referred to as growth assets for their ability to produce strong returns over the long term, but they are more likely to experience volatility (and even negative returns) in shorter timeframes.
Conversely, assets like cash and fixed interest are referred to as defensive assets for their ability to defend against volatility, but generally cannot produce high returns over long periods of time.
How does a Balanced investment option behave?
In the short term, investment options in the Balanced risk category may experience more volatility than a Conservative-style investment but less volatility than a Growth-style investment.
In the long term, a Balanced-style investment option will generally grow more than a Conservative-style investment option but not as much as a Growth-style investment option.
Playing the long game
It's important to keep an eye on how your super is performing for you year to year (and interesting to see how other funds have performed), but for most people, superannuation will be the longest-held investment we ever have, and our lens on super should reflect that.
