The $33 billion AustralianSuper has won SuperRatings’ 2010 Fund of the Year award, while CareSuper and Sunsuper also earned top accolades. 

The big industry fund ranked highest in SuperRatings’ judgment because it “show[ed] the industry how a very large fund can still be contemporary, can still change quickly and, of course, use its scale to provide exceptional value for members,” Jeff Bresnahan, managing director of the ratings house, said.

In addition, each of the fund’s investment options was a top 10 performer in SuperRatings’ indexes in the last 10 years, and its negotiation of low insurance premiums, default income protection and high automatic acceptance limits with new group risk provider Tower Australia  in 2009 were among its standout achievements, Bresnahan added.

CareSuper was deemed to have the best accumulation product on the market, taking out the 2010 Super of the Year award, while Sunsuper completed a ‘three-peat’ after being judged Pension of the Year for the third consecutive year.

In other award categories, the efforts made by the Commonwealth Bank Officers’ Super Fund to improve its member services earned it the Rising Star award, and BT Super for Life, which this month passed $1 billion in funds under managment after just three years in existence, won the Fast Mover award for running the industry’s best product positioning, promotion and distribution strategies.

Reflecting on the ratings process, Bresnahan said: “While we have an excellent proportion of well-run and great value-for-money funds, super funds that offer little relative value continue to exist and consumers should actively seek to avoid [them].”