Positive financial returns have been delivered to the superannuation accounts of South Australia’s Public Servants, according to Funds SA’s annual report.
Treasurer, Rob Lucas welcomed the 2020-21 Annual Report from Funds SA, the specialist asset manager of the State Government, which showed the most popular investment option (Balanced Tax-Exempt) achieved the highest one-year return on record.
Funds SA manages investment portfolios on behalf of South Australia’s Public Sector superannuation funds and approved public authorities, including SuperSA and Police Super.
Mr Lucas said Chant West, a leading independent research firm specialising in superannuation and pension funds, reported that Funds SA’s performance in the past year was significantly above the industry average.
“Over the last three years, Funds SA has outperformed its industry competitors by 8.9 per cent, which is an outstanding performance as over the last 10 years Funds SA returns were actually 2.3 per cent lower than competitor funds as measured by Chant West,” Mr Lucas said.
He said funds under management were now in excess of $41 billion, compared with $32 billion in 2017-2018.
Mr Lucas said the standout contribution for the year was the International Equities Tax-Exempt asset class returning 37.1 per cent, which was 7.3 per cent above the asset class’s benchmark.
He said that in addition to superannuation, Funds SA managed investments for entities covering insurance, investment and endowment funds, such as the Lifetime Support Authority and the University of Adelaide.
“I congratulate the management of Funds SA, led by Ms Jo Townsend, and the board, under the leadership of Mr Paul Laband, who was appointed Chair of the Board soon after the State Election in 2018,” Mr Lucas said.
The Funds SA 29-page Annual Report can be downloaded at this PS News link.
