Australia’s superannuation funds turned in double-digit returns for the 2024 calendar year thanks to the bull market in stocks, according to the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, with some achieving nearly 12% for their balanced fund offerings.

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Rest Super reported an 11.19% return for its default option in 2024, the second consecutive year of positive returns. Rest attributed the strong performance largely to its investments in local and international equities.

Notably, the fund has averaged 8.34% in annual returns since its inception in 1988, beating the ASFA’s calculated average for balanced options of about 7% over a 10-year period. Rest’s high-growth option and its sustainable growth option also benefited from the strong performance of stock markets, returning 14.09% and 14.08%, respectively, for the calendar year.

“Strong investment returns over the short term help support our long-term investment goals,” Rest Interim Co-CIO Kiran Singh said. “Global share markets were standout performers—especially the U.S.—during the past year. With several central banks moving to ease monetary policy and markets responding positively, we anticipate this should continue in 2025. Equity valuations are elevated but, for now, they are supported by continued economic resilience and earnings growth.”

Additionally, Australian Retirement Trust’s balanced offering returned 11.9% in 2024; its high-growth option returned 13.7%, with CIO Ian Patrick highlighting strong returns from both domestic and global share markets as “key drivers” for the performance.

Further, ASFA revealed high-growth options also garnered “exceptional results,” with annual returns reported as high as 15%.

AMP’s MySuper life stage 1970s investment option returned 15%, which has the most funds under management among the other offerings in the stable; it has a high-growth asset allocation.

Meanwhile, MySuper’s 1950s and 1960s options returned 9.8% and 11.5%, respectively. Similarly to outcomes at Rest, AMP CIO Anna Shelley said the investments in the U.S. and global equities aided the positive outcomes.

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“The quality of returns reflects strategic allocation and active performance by our equity and credit managers to asset classes and our overweight to stocks, which we expected to perform strongly during the year, and this strategy has been successful,” Shelley said. “We’ve been increasing our exposure to private debt and diversified credit, which have delivered high and consistent returns. Our previous relatively low allocation to direct property has allowed us to increase this exposure by buying from motivated sellers at deep discounts.”

Shelley also added that the groundbreaking investment in bitcoin through its Dynamic Asset Allocation program has made a “positive contribution.”

Meantime, ASFA CEO Mary Delahunty said she believes the resounding performances result from the “sophisticated portfolio construction from superannuation funds’ expert investment teams that deliver terrific long-term results regardless of what is happening on the markets,” in statement.

This article appeared in our sister publication, Financial Standard, which, like CIO, is owned by ISS STOXX.