Europe woes loom over Australian Super Funds

Of course you could have just invested  your Super money via a SMSF into Gold for a 5.7% increase or Silver for a 7.4% increase this calendar year. Yet again lumps of shinny metal outperform the gurus of the Australian Super Fund industry. Data source

From SMH.com.au
By Madeleine Heffernan

Original source

Australians should brace themselves for the prospect of a loss in their super funds for the 2012 financial year, after fears over the European debt crisis once again knocked performances in May, according to projections by an industry researchers.

SuperRatings says the median balanced fund - the most common kind of fund in Austrlaia, with exposure to growth assets of between 60 and 76 per cent - edged up 0.3 per cent in the month of April, the fourth consecutive month of growth.

But the flaring up of the European debt crisis is tipped to send performance lower in May, with SuperRatings estimating losses of 3.2 per cent since the start of the month.

A fall of about 3 per cent fall in May would leave the median Australian balanced super option down about 5 per cent from its October 2007 high, it says.

For the three months to April 2012, the return for the median balanced option was 3.62 per cent, and for the financial year to April, 2.41 per cent, SuperRatings says.

Chairman Jeff Bresnahan says the markets' reactions to the ongoing European challenges over the next six weeks will be crucial to determining superannuation returns for the 2012 fiscal year.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/europe-woes-loom-over-super-funds-20120521-1z08l.html#ixzz1vUJTl9rp