How much has your super fund lost?

CHANCES are your super fund has lost money this financial year. Take a look at the best and worst performing funds.

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How much has your super fund lost?

YOUR super is going backwards. Workers in private schools, the real estate industry and those who leave their choice of super to their employer will be big losers this financial year.

While people in local government, public servants and the hospitality industry are among those who won't fare as bad.

Almost all super funds are expected to deliver a negative investment performance this year but the gap between the best and worst has widened to more than 10 per cent.

When the numbers are finalised in the next few weeks, the losses in June are expected to add to most super fund woes. So far this month funds have lost an average of about 3.6 per cent.

Only five super funds are still recording a positive return for the financial year to date. However, Jeff Bresnahan from research firm SuperRatings says none of those funds are likely to stay in positive territory by the end of June.

"I would be incredibly surprised if anyone is positive at the end of June because the Australian share market is off 7 per cent in June, which drags super down 3.5 to 4 per cent,'' Mr Bresnahan says.

"The only way any of them could counteract that is to revalue some of their unlisted assets.''
Industry super funds such as MTAA have up to 40 per cent of their funds in unlisted assets, such as direct property and infrastructure investments, which are valued by valuers, rather than daily by the public market.

Although most of the focus is on the "balanced'' fund option, the average loss for the growth-oriented Australian share option is about minus 6 per cent, while for international shares it is about minus 10.8 per cent.

"June will push some of the growth options to losses of 16 or 17 per cent,'' Mr Bresnahan says.

The worst performing super fund in 2007-2008 looks set to be the Legg Mason fund which provides a corporate superannuation service to a range of companies.

Employees in the Legg Mason corporate balanced trust option, for example, have already lost more than 10 per cent of their savings this year and could lose close to 15 per cent this financial year if returns in June are as bad as forecast.

"his is the first year in a number of years that the fund has lost value,'' Legg Mason spokesman Robert Lawson said.

"Super is a long-term investment and over three, five and seven years the fund has delivered good numbers.

"The fund invests in Australian equities, global equities and property securities -- each of those are down in the 11 months to May and down further in June. Our annual return will be negative because of that.

"We are not planning on changing strategy or selling shares. The fund will stay on a balanced strategy.''

Other big losers are people in Westpac's BT Super, ANZ's ING super, Commonwealth Bank's Colonial First State and St George Bank's Asgard employer super.

SUPER FUND RETURNS - 11 months to May 31

Top ten
Vision SS balanced                     +1.26
C'wealth OSF Super mix70        +0.96
PSS Trustee choice                    +0.95
HOSTPLUS balanced                +0.55
MTAA Super - balanced              +0.41
AUSCOAL Super - balanced     -0.17
AGEST balanced                         -0.41
REST - core strategy                  -0.46
QSuper - balanced                     -0.61
BussQ - balanced growth          -0.75

Bottom ten
Legg Mason corp m'trust balanced       -10.76
BT Lifetime Super multi balanced          -8.72
REI Super - balanced                               -6.64
Combined fund - balanced                      -6.47
BT Super - Westpac balanced                -6.38
Asset Super Medium Growth                   -6.37
ANZ/ING corp - managed growth           -6.30
Asgard emp super SMA balanced        -5.03
ING Integra balanced                              -4.49
Colonial First State - moderate              -4.30