Do you know what your super fund is invested in?

In this guide

Why knowing more matters
What is published and where to find it
Does my super fund need to disclose all its investments?
What it looks like
What next
Get more guides like this with a free account

You probably know the essentials about the investment option you’ve chosen for your superannuation, beginning with its name and whether it’s tilted towards growth or defensive assets or a ‘balance’ of the two. You may even know the target allocation to growth vs defensive assets and the recommended timeframe for investing.

Dig a little deeper, and you’ll likely find a pie chart breaking down the allocation to each asset class (Australian shares, international shares, property, infrastructure, etc.), and more detail about target investment returns and performance history.

If you’ve ever been interested in knowing more, you’ll be pleased to know that super funds are required to publish very detailed information about their investments. You just need to know where to look.

Why knowing more matters

Super is your money and you should be comfortable with what it’s being used to buy. You may want to avoid funding projects or companies that don’t align with your personal values on issues like climate change, tobacco or weapons.

If you’re concerned about supporting gambling, for example, you can find out if your super is invested in companies that are involved in the gaming industry.

Learn more about how to make your super more socially aware.

Investment disclosure is also designed to allow financial analysts and you, as a fund member, to better assess the level of diversification offered and the risk associated with each investment option.

What is published and where to find it

Super funds are required to make detailed information about the holdings in each of their investment options publicly available on their website within 90 days of each 31 December and 30 June. The information reflects the precise holdings in each portfolio on those dates.

The regulatory requirement that supports this is called Portfolio Holdings Disclosure (PHD). The fastest way to find the published information is often to enter the name of your fund and that term into your preferred search engine, e.g. ‘UniSuper Portfolio Holdings Disclosure’. Alternatively, you can visit your fund’s website directly and find the section on investments, including headings like ‘How we invest’.

The rules require a fund to disclose sufficient information to identify:

Each investment asset in all the investment options offered by the super fund
The value and the weighting or exposure of each investment
The total value and the weighting or exposure of all disclosable assets.

Unlisted assets and some derivatives can be bundled for each type of asset, rather than needing to be identified individually.

If your fund holds the asset directly and is required to disclose it separately, you will see full details such as the number of shares held in each company, percentage ownership of physical buildings (plus the building’s address) or the name of the bank holding cash (and the currency).

Where the fund uses an external fund manager that they’re not associated with to manage some of the portfolio, you will see the name of that manager. Unfortunately, details about where external managers have placed investments are not generally shown because the regulations don’t require it. Some funds publish information about the external manager’s underlying investments if they have access to it.

Information about assets held in an option that has been closed to new members for more than five years or that only supports defined benefits doesn’t need to be disclosed.

Does my super fund need to disclose all its investments?

One of our members asked this question in one of our members’ Q&A webinars.

Q: Aware Super Fund told me that they do not disclose the products the super is invested in, nor the quantity of units, but I have been told that this is incorrect and that they should disclose all these investment company names and the number of units that I hold in them.

A: Okay, I need to make a real disclosure here first. You need to get fund information directly from the fund. If you’ve received the response as a response, as the question suggests that you’re not happy with or you don’t think it’s right, go back and ask for a more senior person. The information that you’re asking for isn’t information, of course, that we can provide, and I’m sure you know that.

But what I did is I just jumped to the Aware Super site and had a look at the information, which I could find on the website. When I look at the member statement, it would certainly show you which investment funds your super balance has been invested in, what you’ve chosen as your asset allocation or what you’re invested in through those investment funds. You’ll see on the snapshot there, it’ll say on your member statement lists each of those investment funds. Then I jumped onto the website, and it does give a detailed view of each of the investment funds and the data. Once you click on that file, you’ll see there I’ve just chosen the high growth fund there.

You’ll see if you click on that, there is an Excel file, it gives all the assets of the high-growth fund. It lists the investments, the shares that it’s invested in, the bank accounts that it has, the term deposits that it has. It has all of the assets, the value of each of those assets, and how much each of those assets makes up of the fund, so the fund weighting. I found that on the website. It wasn’t difficult to find there. If you just jump on, I think you’ll see that information is available. Not sure what Aware Super was responding to, or maybe they got confused with the question, but I found that information on the website. Jump on there and have a look.

What it looks like

Super funds must use a prescribed table format for their PHD information that can be downloaded as a comma-separated value (CSV) file. Unfortunately, it’s not particularly user-friendly. Most files contain thousands of line items that can leave you poring through information for hours. Thankfully, it’s quick and simple to search for keywords such as companies you particularly want to avoid.

Some funds also provide additional ways for members to access the details with more practical tools.

Providers taking the lead in this area include AustralianSuper, Mercer and UniSuper, all of which offer features that include the ability to filter the published assets by type (infrastructure, shares, etc) and view holdings directly on the webpage. This type of tool is easier to navigate and simpler to read.

AustralianSuper also includes a search function you can use to look for a particular asset (such as a specific company’s shares). AustralianSuper and UniSuper both include information about their responsible investment approach and stewardship programs.

What next

What you discover about your super fund’s investments may give you comfort and peace of mind or set off some alarms.

If you’re not satisfied with what you find, you can search for another super fund that may suit you better or consider switching investment options in the fund you’re with.

Learn how to compare super funds and how to change investment options.

Alternatively, perhaps you’re feeling empowered enough to take more hands-on control of your super investments. Choosing a direct investment option with a large fund or starting your own self-managed super fund (SMSF) allows you to choose the assets you buy with your super yourself.

Find out more about direct options and the funds that offer them and if an SMSF could be right for you.

Get more guides like this with a free account

Get independent guidance and practical tools to help you make
better super and retirement decisions.

Create free account

Prefer full access? See what’s included in membership.