Super is the biggest pot of money most Australians will have outside the family home, and nearly two in three super accounts sit in a default where the investment option and the holdings inside it were picked by somebody else.
The system works, and most defaults do their job. This page is about checking yours.
Few people choose their super fund with the care they give to choosing a phone plan. It arrives with a job, it gets a letter once a year, and across Australian households it is the second-largest asset after the home.
the system
Australia’s superannuation system held $4.8 trillion at 30 June 2026. There were 81 APRAAustralian Prudential Regulation Authority. They oversee banks, super funds and insurers to make sure your money is handled properly. Think of them as the safety inspector for financial institutions.-regulated funds with more than six members at June 2025. Employers must pay at least 12% of your qualifying earnings, every payday. It is compulsory. You do not opt in.
ATO figures for 2023-24 put the median balance for a 30 to 34 year old at about $43,000 for men and $38,000 for women. At 60 to 64 the median for women was 26% lower. About 65% of member accounts sat in default MySuperA standardised, low-cost default super product, which a fund needs before it can take default contributions. If you never chose a specific option, this is probably where your super sits. products at June 2025.
hold on to this one
what a default actually is
Three decisions you never made: which fund holds your money, which investment option inside it your balance sits in, and which companies that option buys. An employer made the first, the fund’s trustee the second, and managers measured against a market index the third.
the good stuff
The 2025 Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index graded Australia B+, with the seventh-highest score of 52 retirement systems. On Chant West’s published numbers the median growth fund returned 7.8% a year over the ten years to June 2026, after investment fees and tax, which is the reason the system is usually described as working. MySuper, the default since 2014, is a standardised product restricted in the kinds of fee it can charge, and 49 of the 50 MySuper products passed APRA’s 2026 performance test.
where your super actually goes
APRA’s figures for MySuper products at 30 June 2026 show the mix: 22% in Australian listed shares, 34% in international listed shares, 6% in unlisted equity, 16% in fixed income, 11% in infrastructure and 7% in property, with the rest in cash and alternatives. More than half your super is in listed shares.
AustralianSuper says it managed over $430 billion at 30 June 2026. The biggest Australian shareholdings in its default option at that date were BHP, Commonwealth Bank and Rio Tinto, with Woodside seventh. A $40,000 balance is a rounding error to a fund that size, but APRA’s 2026 figures put 54% of the fund’s assets in its MySuper product.
APRA measures every default against a portfolio of market indices, and an index buys things in proportion to how big a company already is, with nobody screening what it does.
the fossil fuel exposure
Market Forces, a campaign group, found in December 2025 that the default or largest options of the 30 biggest funds held more than $33 billion in the 200 companies with the biggest fossil fuel expansion plans, among them BHP, Woodside and Santos.
AustralianSuper’s Balanced option held $9.1 billion of that, and of the 30 funds only Australian Ethical held none. HESTA excludes companies earning 15% or more of their revenue from mining thermal coal, and those taking 75% or more of both revenue and reserves from unconventional oil and gas such as tar sands.
Fossil fuel exposure figures are estimates built from publicly disclosed holdings. They may miss unlisted assets, and they count a listed company in full however much of it is fossil fuels. Check your own fund’s current disclosure rather than trusting a number in an article.
the fees eating your retirement
ASIC’s Moneysmart gives a worked example. Savannah is 30, earns $50,000 a year and has $20,000 in super. Moving from a fund that charges 2.5% in fees to one that charges 1%, for the same performance, leaves her $81,000 better off at 65. It is an illustration of what fees do, and it does not forecast anyone’s balance.
The Productivity Commission ran its own numbers in 2018: fees half a percentage point higher can cost a typical full-time worker about 12% of their balance, or $100,000, by retirement.
Default insurance premiums come out of your balance too. The Productivity Commission found they could cost members on low incomes as much as 14% of their balance by retirement. The law has since changed, and cover no longer starts automatically for most new members under 25 or with less than $6,000.
the active fee, the passive fund
S&P’s SPIVA scorecard shows that over the fifteen years to December 2024, 85% of actively managed Australian share funds fell short of the S&P/ASX 200 after fees. APRA tests each super default against a passive portfolio of indices, and Treasury’s 2023 review found the test can affect funds’ decisions by “encouraging short-termism and benchmark hugging”.
Paying an active fee for returns that follow the index is the quiet version of the problem. APRA publishes each MySuper product’s ten-year return against that benchmark portfolio, next to its fees.
what this means for your money
You can change where your super goes. ASIC’s Moneysmart says the process “is usually straightforward”, and says to check first what insurance you would lose by leaving your old fund.
Australian Ethical says it excludes companies that make weapons or tobacco products, or whose main business is fossil fuels or gambling. Future Super says it sets “a 0% revenue threshold for fossil fuel companies”. Both are APRA-regulated. Australian Ethical has a MySuper product you can compare on the ATO’s YourSuper comparison tool. Future Super is not among the 50 MySuper products APRA tested in 2026, so the tool leaves it out. A screened option can charge more than a default, so compare the fees before you move.
inaam is not a super fund and nothing here is super advice. You cannot move your super into the inaam fund, and the money you invest with inaam sits alongside your super rather than instead of it. What inaam does is the reading this page is asking for: every company in the fund is named in the app, with the reason it got in and the trade-off next to it. The three checks are on how it works, and the five themes members customise for themselves are on investment areas. The subscription is $10 a month, which is $120 a year, and it is separate from the money you invest. The minimum to invest in the fund is $100. Sign-up happens in the app, not on this website. SMSFs and family trusts are welcome.
If you have never picked, an employer chose your fund, the fund chose your investment option, and managers measured against a market index chose what you hold. You are allowed to make each of those choices yourself.
key sources
APRA · ATO · Market Forces · Productivity Commission · Treasury · ASIC Moneysmart
General information only. It does not take your objectives or circumstances into account. Consider the PDS and TMD, and we recommend independent advice, before investing. This article is general information only and does not constitute financial advice, and it is not advice about superannuation. Readers should do their own research, and seek advice, before making decisions about their super. The inaam Impact Investments Fund is ARSN 691 614 132. inaam is not affiliated with AustralianSuper, HESTA, Australian Ethical, Future Super or any super fund discussed in this article.
