This is a pre-mixed, diversified fund that invests your super in a range of assets with a strong allocation towards Australian and international shares, direct property and infrastructure. Investment allocation is the same for all members in the Balanced fund, regardless of age. It's an authorised MySuper product.
Similar to AustralianSuper Balanced, this is a ready-made investment portfolio with a strong focus on shares, bonds, private equity and infrastructure. Investment allocation is the same for all members in the Core Strategy, regardless of age. It's an authorised MySuper product.
Performance
5 years: 7.76% p.a.
3 years: 6.44% p.a.
5 years: 6.65% p.a.
3 years: 6.43% p.a.
Fees
Here's how much you'd pay in fees for one year if you had the following amounts invested in AustralianSuper Balanced:
$5,000 balance: $85 in fees
$50,000 balance: $382 in fees
$100,000 balance: $712 in fees
Here's how much you'd pay in fees for one year if you had the following amounts invested in Rest Core Strategy:
$5,000 balance: $113.50 in fees
$50,000 balance: $433 in fees
$100,000 balance: $788 in fees
Additional diversified investment options
If you don't want to invest in the default option (AustralianSuper Balanced), you can choose to invest your super in one of the following pre-made investment options instead:
High Growth
Socially Aware
Indexed Diversified
Conservative Balanced
Stable
If you don't want to invest in the default option (Rest Core Strategy), you can choose to invest your super in one of the following pre-made investment options instead:
High Growth
Balanced
Balanced - Indexed
Diversified
Capital Stable
Single asset class investment options
If you want to design your own investment mix, you can invest your super in one or more of the following individual asset classes:
Australian Shares
International Shares
Property
Diversified Fixed Interest
Cash
If you want to design your own investment mix, you can invest your super in one or more of the following individual asset classes:
Australian Shares
Australian Shares - Indexed
Overseas Shares
Overseas Shares - Indexed
Property
Shares
Bonds
Cash
Basic Cash
Mobile app
The AustralianSuper app has a 3.1-star rating from users in Google Play and a 2.6 star rating in the Apple App Store.
The Rest mobile app has a 3.5 star rating from users in Google Play and a 4.5 star rating in the Apple App Store.
Both funds are popular industry super funds, though AustralianSuper has significantly more members and more funds under management than Rest.
The two default MySuper options are AustralianSuper Balanced and Rest Core Strategy. These two products are very similar; both are MySuper products and both are pre-mixed, diversified funds.
Looking at their investment allocation, AustralianSuper Balanced has more exposure to international shares than Rest Core Strategy and is slightly higher risk overall. Rest Core Strategy has a greater allocation to lower-risk, defensive assets than AustralianSuper.
How do their fees and performance figures compare?
Looking at the default options, AustralianSuper has lower annual fees than Rest Core Strategy. AustralianSuper Balanced has also delivered higher returns than Rest Core Strategy over the short, medium and long terms.
How do the ethical investments compare?
AustralianSuper offers a dedicated ethical investment option, AustralianSuper Socially Aware, which you can choose instead of the default option. AustralianSuper Socially Aware is a diversified fund that invests in a range of different assets, but it avoids investments in fossil fuels, tobacco manufacturing and coal. It also avoids companies with single-gender boards and those which have been flagged as having human rights issues.
AustralianSuper is very transparent about the companies it invests in, listing all the funds investments publicly on its website. While it does offer one dedicated ethical investment option, AustralianSuper says it factors environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) into all its investments.
Rest does not offer a dedicated ethical investment option as a choice to members. Rest says it applies positive ESG standards towards all of its different investment options, and has a climate change statement on its website.
If you're interested in investing your super ethically, you can compare these funds with a range of additional ethical super funds in our guide.
How do the additional investment options compare?
AustralianSuper and Rest offer very similar additional, diversified investment options. Both offer a diversified, indexed balanced option which invests in index funds.
If you want to design your own investment mix using the single asset class options, you have a lot more choice with Rest than AustralianSuper. Rest offers nine individual asset class options, while AustralianSuper only offers five. The big difference here is that Rest offers indexed Australian shares and indexed overseas shares, while AustralianSuper offers no single indexed share options. Indexed shares are a popular choice for members looking to lower their investment costs, as indexed investments are generally much cheaper.
If you're not yet convinced that either AustralianSuper or Rest is right for you, or you simply want to see how they compare to others in the market, you can compare super funds with our guide.
Alison Banney is the money editorial manager at Finder. She covers all areas of personal finance, and her areas of expertise are superannuation, banking and saving. She has written about finance for 10 years, having previously worked at Westpac and written for several other major banks and super funds.
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Hello, I am currently with Essuper. I am not happy with my current return. Are you able to help me with choosing the right super fund for myself?
Hi Lucy, Finder is a comparison service and we aren’t licensed to offer any personal financial advice or product recommendations. We do have some guides on how to compare super funds which you might find helpful:
https://www.finder.com.au/super-funds
https://www.finder.com.au/super-funds/best-super-funds
Hope this helps,
Alison