New analysis from the Super Members Council shows that super funds governed by representative trustee models deliver superior investment returns, generating $33 billion in additional value for their members over the past five years compared to funds with other governance models.
The findings are in the Council’s latest report, Member First Representation: The Profit to Member Governance Advantage, which highlights the long-term performance benefits to members of boards built on equal representation from employers and employees.
The equal representation model ensures diverse voices, strong accountability, and decision making focused squarely on the fund members’ best financial interests.
The Council’s latest analysis shows that representative governance models are the backbone of the world’s leading retirement systems. Countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark and Finland are all ranked among the strongest globally and use similar governance frameworks to Australia’s profit-to-member super funds.
The report sets out clear evidence on how representative governed funds have outperformed their non-representative peers on major measures of benefits to members.
Across the five-year period to June 2025, representative governed funds generated $33 billion in net additional value for members, while other sectors collectively recorded losses. For a typical Australian with $50,000 in super, this performance gap translates into an extra $1,900 in their super over five years.
The report also confirms this is not a short-term trend - it is part of a long-term track record of outperformance by funds governed through member centred board structures.
Funds with representative governance have a strong history of keeping fees low and running efficiently. Over the past 20 years, they’ve charged members less in administration and operating costs than other funds, which means more money stays with their members to earn them even stronger investment returns.
Representative funds typically invest more heavily in unlisted assets such as infrastructure, private credit and private equity—diversifying portfolios in ways that deliver stronger, long-term, risk-adjusted returns for members.
These diversified strategies also contribute to enhanced stability during market shocks, including the Global Financial Crisis, when representative funds have delivered lower volatility and stronger recoveries.
Strong governance continues to be central to protecting and growing Australians’ savings as Australia faces into demographic changes, rising cyber and geopolitical risks, and amid greater regulatory scrutiny. The representative model is strongly placed to navigate these trends and maintain system-wide trust.
“Lower fees, stronger long-term returns and more resilient diversified investment strategies all flow from a representative governance model that puts members’ interests at its very heart,” says the Council’s CEO Misha Schubert. “These funds exist for one reason only – to benefit their members.”
“The representative governance model delivers diversity in insights, lived experience, skills and expertise that strengthen board decision-making, which is unified by a strong shared member-first values and ethos.”
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The opinions above are those of the author in their capacity as spokesperson for Super Members Council of Australia (SMC). SMC, the authors and all other persons involved in the preparation of this information are thereby not giving legal, financial or professional advice for individual persons or organisations.
