Australians are not gauging the success of their superannuation funds, despite the plethora of information available on the industry's performance.  
 
This was the key finding of a national newspoll released by the Institute last week, which found that half of the 700 Australians surveyed had never compared the performance of their super fund with other funds and only one in four (27 per cent) claimed to have conducted an annual performance comparison.  
 
The newspoll did find the majority (83 per cent) used their super fund's annual statement and/or annual report to review the performance of their super, however this was largely to review their account balances (97 per cent) and fees (75 per cent) - not to check if they are getting the best deal. 
 
This further highlights the value that practitioners who are licenced to provide financial planning advice can offer their clients.  
 
'For many people, investing in super is the second largest investment they are making in their life,' said Hugh Elvy, financial planning and superannuation manager at the Institute.  
 
'With super fund annual statements due out in the coming months, and preliminary performance results from super funds as at the 30 June shaping up to be the best in years, now is a good time for practitioners to offer advice on monitoring super fund performance. 
 
'It is important, however, that when comparing super funds, clients are comparing funds with a similar asset allocation - that is, comparing like with like. That's where the real benefit of using a licenced practitioner kicks in.' 
 
Other newspoll findings

• Approximately half of those surveyed (51 per cent) had changed their super fund, with the lion's share changing because they had changed employer 
  
• 73 per cent was because they had changed employer
 

• 19 per cent moved money because of advice from financial planner
 

• 18 per cent moved money due to dissatisfaction with performance of their fund.

• The Institute's media release: Australians don't gauge success of their superannuation fund