Best-Performing Super Funds Over 10 Years Revealed

The top-performing balanced super fund in Australia has delivered average annual returns of almost 9% over the past decade, according to research. Consumer comparison company Finder has published a list of the top-performing super funds over the 10 years to 30 June 2023, with Hostplus revealed as the No. 1 investment for returns.

Chant West provided the data, canvassing only balanced investment options among super funds. Balanced investment options are popular because they typically spread an investor’s superannuation monies across several asset classes, including shares, infrastructure, property, bonds and cash.

Here are the 5 top-performing super funds over the past decade

Hostplus Balanced (average 8.9% p.a.)

Hostplus’s balanced portfolio invests primarily in high growth assets with high stock diversification, according to the website. The minimum investment timeframe is more than five years and the target return is inflation (CPI) plus 4% p.a. over 20 years. The total investment fee is estimated at 0.98% p.a.

AustralianSuper Balanced (average 8.6% p.a)

This super fund invests in a wide range of assets, including shares, private equity, infrastructure, property, fixed interest, credit and cash, according to the website. The minimum investment timeframe is 10 years and the target return is CPI plus a minimum 4% p.a. over the medium to long term. In an example of fees on a $50,000 portfolio, the fee totalled 0.76% p.a.

Australian Retirement Trust (average 8.4% p.a.)

This fund has adopted the investment strategy of the Sunsuper Balanced investment option, according to the website. It invests in a wide variety of asset classes with a large allocation to Australian and international shares. The minimum investment timeframe is five years and the target return is CPI plus 3.5% p.a. over 10 years. The total investment fee is estimated at 0.8% p.a.

UniSuper Balanced (average 8.4% p.a.)

UniSuper balanced invests in a diversified portfolio of mainly higher-risk assets such as Australian and international shares, property, infrastructure and private equity, with some fixed interest and cash investments, according to the website. The minimum investment timeframe is 10 years and the target return is CPI plus 3% p.a. over 10 years. The total investment fee is estimated at 0.51% p.a.

Cbus Growth (MySuper) (average 8.3% p.a.)

The Cbus MySuper fund invests in growth assets including Australian shares and global shares, private equity, infrastructure, property, global credit, fixed interest and cash. The target return is CPI plus 3.5% p.a. over 10 years. The total investment fee is estimated at 0.5% p.a.

Source: Chant West, average annual returns among balanced super funds, 10 years to 30 June 2023

If we compare these funds’ performance to other assets owned by Australian investors, we find that over this same 10-year period, the median house price across Australia’s combined capital cities rose by about 70%. In other words, your home’s value grew by an average of 7% per year, according to CoreLogic data. If you owned an investment property during this time period, then rental returns would be added on top.

Compared to shares, the top super funds above outperformed the ASX 200. Using a popular index-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) as our yardstick, we see that the iShares Core S&P/ASX 200 ETF (ASX: IOZ) has delivered an average annual return of 7.5% (combined capital growth and dividends) since inception in 2010.

If you want to switch super funds, Finder provides the following advice and a four-step process.

Step 1: Choose a new super fund

Look for a combination of low annual fees, high long-term returns (10 year performance) and an investment strategy you understand and agree with.

Step 2: Join the new super fund

Download and complete the new membership form from the fund’s website.

Step 3: Transfer your existing super

Download and complete a second form to transfer your existing super to the new fund.

Step 4: Tell your employer

Download and complete a third form from your new fund’s website called the ‘employee super choice form’ or similar.

Gold is one of the market’s go-to hedges in rocky times. Don’t forget that gold miners’ stocks are too.

The stock market’s gains in 2026 belie the rocky macroeconomic picture: elevated inflation, heightened geopolitical tensions, and jitters about the artificial-intelligence trade. That backdrop, in theory, should be the time for gold to shine. Instead, the price of the yellow metal has tumbled more than 5% so far, after last year’s blistering 65% rally. In part, the U.S. dollar’s recovery has stymied gold, which benefited from the greenback’s weakness in 2025.

Even with the precious metal’s recent weakness, gold mining stocks could be the best way to profit from this year’s uncertainty.

Gold miners “are a valuable hedge against macro risks that would likely be damaging for equities,” BCA Research’s Noah Weisberger and Rishabh Shah wrote this week.

Concerns about the Federal Reserve’s next moves to tackle inflation, the increasingly crowded AI trade, and steep valuations for tech stocks are just some of the drivers that could help gold’s price get on even footing— and lead to even bigger gains for miner stocks.

These stocks’ prices tend to outpace gold’s moves, because the companies have fixed operational costs. So when gold’s price rallies, their profit margins soar, and vice versa. For instance, the VanEck Gold Miners GDX +7.39% exchange-traded fund has fallen 11% this year as the metal has slumped.

Now, gold’s price just needs to stabilize to help miners’ stocks take off, and that seems to be happening. The precious metal has recently found support above the $4,000 level, and has stuck in a narrow range since the end of June. But its price rose ever so slightly in July, ending a four-month losing streak for the metal. Technical analysis also suggests that gold is due for a comeback.

Barron’s recently wrote that the pullbacks for both gold miners and the metal itself are overdone. Senior technical analyst Doug Busch noted that the VanEck ETF is on the “verge of a breakout” and has the potential to hit $11o in early 2027, up more than 40% from its current price.

Gold miners also have more than their role as a market hedge going for them. Their fundamentals are solid, too, says Chris Mancini, portfolio co-manager of the Gabelli Gold Fund.

“Precious metals miners are generating substantial amounts of free cash flow given profit margins of over $2,000 per ounce, and are returning this cash to shareholders through buybacks and dividends,” he said in an email.

“Buying the miners is a cheap way to get exposure to the price of gold,” he added. His fund owns Newmont NEM +6.71%, a Barron’s stock pick last year, and Agnico Eagle Mines as top holdings, as well as miners Northern Star Resources, Endeavour Mining, and Kinross Gold K+8.59%.

Miners are better businesses than they used to be, the BCA team added.

“Capex is more disciplined, margins are high and rising…and they are largely independent of the AI story,” Weisberger, BCA’s head of equities, and Shah, a senior analyst, wrote.

That last part is key. AI is disrupting the software industry and many other services and information-oriented businesses, and investors have piled into AI stocks. But ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, and other large-language models aren’t going to replace the need to mine for metals.

“Equity portfolios can benefit from exposure to quality that is uncorrelated to AI risk, and gold miners fit the bill,” the BCA team said.

They recommend that investors buy the VanEck Gold Miners ETF, which owns top miners such as Agnico, Barrick Mining ABX +7.24%, and Newmont.

An important bonus for big gold miners’ stocks is that their valuations are attractive after the gold’s pullback, too. The VanEck ETF is now trading at just a little more than nine times next year’s earnings estimates. That’s a big discount to its five-year average price-to-earnings ratio of 14, according to FactSet.

What’s more, the ETF is currently valued at a more than 50% discount to the S&P 500 SPX -0.17%, which is trading for about 19 times earnings estimates for 2027. Mining stocks have typically traded at just a 25% discount to the broader market over the past five years. So there is significant upside for the group if valuations move back toward normal levels.

One factor that complicates mining stocks as a market hedge, of course, is if stocks bounce back, which has been the case so far in August.

But both the market and economic outlooks remain cloudy, and investors remain nervous about the Fed’s next moves and AI stocks. Gold miners should do just fine, even if the anxious mood on Wall Street persists.