Industry funds outperform retail counterparts

The monthly data provided by superannuation researcher SuperRatings shows that industry funds have outperformed retail funds in the "short, medium and long term", ISA said.

Over a rolling 10-year period industry super funds returned members 6.13 per cent, while retail funds returned 4.10 per cent.

On a shorter timeframe, industry funds outperformed bank-owned super funds by 2.11 per cent, 2.24 per cent and 1.96 per cent over one, three and five-year periods respectively.

ISA chief executive David Whiteley urged young workers to switch to a fund that delivers all profits to members.

"Over the long, medium and short term, independent research consistently reinforces that member's benefit from the strong 'all profit to members' philosophy that drives the industry super fund sector," Mr Whiteley said.

"Today's data further underlines the need to maintain the current default superannuation system, which ensures only high-performing super funds can be used as default funds by employers.

"This is an important protection for millions of Australians who rely on this system and don't actively make a choice of fund," he said.