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ASX investment rotation favours golds, small caps
Investment performance from growth strategies lagged in 2025 as investors rotated away from structural growth stocks and toward resources and value-oriented stocks, according to Lonsec. The research and financial services firm said small capitalisation companies delivered excellent returns, with the S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries Index rising 24.96% last year. “Small caps finally had their day in the sun,” Director of Research Peter Green said in a media release. Green said gold miners also stood out as they benefited from a 65% increase in the spot gold price. Green said the technology and healthcare sectors contracted by 19.1% and 23.9%, respectively, while resources and materials delivered impressive gains of 36.2% and 37.5%, significantly affecting growth managers’ relative performance. “We saw a clear shift in market leadership this year,” Green said. The firm released a new analysis of Australian equity market performance in 2025, which highlighted a challenging period for growth strategies, strong dispersion among active managers, and renewed momentum in the small‑cap sector. “The findings also point to meaningful structural shifts driven by superannuation fund flows and the continued rise of passive investin
Retirement
Calls grow to tighten glaring gaps in aged care advice
While criticism of aged care advice in Australia is far from new, this has intensified due to lingering systemic complexity, regulatory gaps, and high costs. According to a new report by accredited training provider to the financial advice sector, Aged Care Steps, older Australians and their families are increasingly exposed to conflicted, inconsistent and inaccurate advice. Within its recently released White Paper, Protecting Older Australians and Ensuring Quality Advice, Aged Care Steps calls for reforms to existing shortcomings around how aged care advice is currently being provided. Despite the complex financial components involved, such as home care packages and residential care fees, only around 18% of Australians currently seek advice on aged care. Catering for this cohort are around 2,700 financial advisers in Australia who have completed Aged Care Steps’ Accredited Aged Care Professional program. The trouble is that existing gaps in financial advice regulation are, by default, exposing older Australians to a growing number of unlicensed financial advisers, who, according to Aged Care Steps, are potentially exposing older Australians to untold financial harm. What’s clearly evident within the training pr
Retirement
Super returns to fall in 2026 - SuperRatings
Superannuation funds may struggle this year to match the 10.25% return of 2025 after achieving only modest gains in January, according to SuperRatings. The super research house estimated that the median balanced option generated a return of 0.5% in January, which was the sixth positive return for members this financial year. “However, returns are significantly more muted than this time last year, with the financial year to date (FYTD) return sitting at 4.8% compared to 8.0% at the same time in 2025,” SuperRatings said. “The remainder of the financial year may see funds struggle to live up to the 2025 financial year return of 10.5%, with expectations around AI (artificial intelligence) turning into pressure on share prices for those being potentially disrupted or failing to live up to growth ambitions, coupled with ongoing geopolitical tensions and rising inflationary pressures in Australia.” SuperRatings said the growth option also returned 0.5% while the capital stable option produced a return of 0.4%, in January, bringing the returns in the FYTD to 5.7% and 3.1% respectively.Source: SupeRatingsPension members benefited from the tax concessions with the median, growth and capital stable options all returning 0.5% in J
Retirement
SUPER NATION: Industry not warming to cooling off
Super Nation is a fortnightly column that examines, explains and analyses key issues in one of Australia's largest, fastest-growing and most important industries: superannuation. Hot under the collar would be an understatement describing the mindset of Australians who have lost their life savings to scammers. But a proposal from the Australian Government to introduce a cooling-off period for moving money between super funds has not exactly been warmly embraced by some in the A$4.3 trillion industry. Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Daniel Mulino floated the idea at a meeting with industry stakeholders in December as part of a package of reforms to protect Australians from the theft of their retirement savings. The new period that super fund members would have to wait before moving their retirement savings was not disclosed. The forum was convened in the wake of the collapse of the First Guardian and Shield master funds, which cost about 11,000 investors almost $1 billion and have resulted in compensation payments by fund trustees, regulator litigation and other action. It was not formally disclosed in a media release from Mulino, and when he spoke to journalists the same day about the actio
Retirement
SUPER NATION: Finance sub-sectors lobby to avoid levy
Super Nation is a fortnightly column that examines, explains and analyses key issues in one of Australia's largest, fastest-growing and most important industries: superannuation. Lobbying is well underway to see who will be responsible for funding the scheme that compensates Australians who lose money due to bad financial advice or product failures. The competition among advocates is to be excluded from (rather than included in) the finance sub-sectors that pay levies supporting the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR), which pays up to $150,000 to compensate consumers with unpaid determinations from the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. This is not a club you want to join if you can avoid it. The super industry has been ensnared in this issue for the first time, with members having to help foot the bill for a special levy the Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino has introduced to meet a funding shortfall for 2025-26. A special levy may be imposed if the levy estimate amount exceeds the $20 million sub-sector cap, which was the case for the year in question. The $47.3 million levy will be split between financial advisers (22%), credit providers (15.3%), responsible entities (13.7%), superannuation trus

Retirement
Super funds returned 8.8% in 2025 - SuperRatings
Australian superannuation funds generated an 8.8% return for median balanced options in the accumulation phase in 2025 but 2026 is expected to be challenging, according to SuperRatings. The super research house estimated this option finished the year on a high note after a small stumble in November by generating a 0.3% return in December. Although the full year outcome was below the 11.1% delivered in 2024, it comfortably exceeded the long-term average annual return of 6.5% since 2000. “We have seen another strong year of superannuation returns. Funds continue to deliver above expected returns; however, there remain concerns over how long such growth can last,” SuperRatings Director Kirby Rappell said in a media release. “A negative return in November meant the median Balanced option missed reaching double digits for 2025 and the outlook for 2026 is increasingly unclear.”Source: SuperRatingsSuperRatings said the median growth option returned 10.2% last year, including 0.3% in December, while a smaller allocation to shares resulted in the median capital stable option returning 6.2% after 0.1% in the last month of the year. International shares were the only asset class to reach double-digit returns for the year, whil
Retirement
Super returns hit 35% over three years after 9.3% in 2025
The value of superannuation assets has increased by more than one-third over the last three years, according to Chant West. The research, data and analytics provider said median growth funds (those with 61% to 80% in growth assets) delivered a return of 9.3% in the 2025 calendar year. “This follows impressive gains of 9.9% in 2023 and 11.4% in 2024, translating to nearly 35% growth over the past three years,” Chant West said in a media release. “Super fund members invested in higher-risk portfolios enjoyed even stronger outcomes.” Chant West Senior Investment Research Manager Mano Mohankumar said international share markets were the key driver of performance in 2025, returning 18.6% on a currency-hedged basis despite uncertainty about tariffs and geopolitical tensions. He said the return from international shares in unhedged terms was lower at 12.5% due to the appreciation of the Australian dollar. On average, growth funds have 31% invested in international shares and 25% in Australian shares, which returned 10.7%. All major asset classes generated positive returns over the period. Although Chant West was finalising the details for unlisted assets it estimated returns were 7-10% for unlisted infrastructure,
Retirement
UK reforms cut generous expat state pension entitlements
While there will always be an England – as the Vera Lynn war song goes – there’s a diminishing point at which old blighty is willing to provide for your golden years if you’re one of the cohort of ex-pats who worked and lived in the United Kingdom for over a certain period of time. Significant changes to the UK Governments' State Pension rules are expected to materially impact many expatriates currently relying on these "generous" payments as an income stream, and you could be one of them. The UK is one of a handful of countries globally that doesn’t technically have a means test for its aged pension. In other words, nothing you hold in Australia - including superannuation - affected the amount you received from the British government.What happenedThe changes - announced by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel in late November – were part of the Labour Government’s 2026 Budget. As it currently stands, payment amounts are based on an individual's National Insurance (NI) contribution record rather than income or assets. This means the weekly amount received is dependent on contributions made by employers and employees over a person’s working life. The existing rules allowed those who were eligible to make payments b
Retirement
SUPER NATION: No rest for watchdogs in wake of collapses
Super Nation is a fortnightly column that examines, explains and analyses key issues in one of Australia's largest, fastest-growing and most important industries: superannuation. Nobody could accuse the regulators of Australia’s A$4.3 trillion superannuation sector of being asleep at the wheel in the wake of the collapse of the Shield Master Fund and First Guardian Master Fund. In turns out the the prudential and corporate watchdogs were working right up until Christmas in taking action against those it sees as needing to be called to account over the A$1 billion (US$660 million) of losses that investors suffered. On 23 December the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) announced it had imposed additional licence conditions on Diversa Trustees Limited to address concerns relating to its investment governance frameworks and practices, including oversight of platform investment options made available to members. APRA did not specifically name Shield or First Guardian in its media release but it has previously has added conditions to the licences of Diversa and the other investment platform that offered Shield, Equity Trustees. The previous day Azzet had reported regulators had widened their action against