Australia's best pension fund revealed for 2026

UniSuper has been named Money's Best Pension Fund as part of the 2026 Best of the Best awards.

• Find out how we chose the winners
• Order your copy of the bumper awards issue
• Check out more from Best of the Best 2026

Australians' super savings are on track to become the second largest globally (behind the US), surpassing the British and Canadian systems by the early 2030s.

It goes to show the sheer scale of our national super system, and when it comes to managing that money in retirement, UniSuper 
takes out our top award.

In the competitive pension fund market, UniSuper is no stranger to success. The fund also took out this award each year from 2023 to 2025. It's an impressive track record - one that shows UniSuper is ticking a lot of boxes for helping members make the most of their money in retirement.

UniSuper also won Best Fixed-Interest Super Product and Best Fixed-Interest Pension Product as part of the 2026 Best of the Best awards.

UniSuper chief marketing and growth officer, Dani Murrie describes UniSuper's point of difference in the drawdown phase. "A holistic advice and education service supports our pension members and membership more broadly.

"Members can speak to qualified financial professionals across 34 locations nationwide as part of our in-house financial advice offering - spanning general advice through to comprehensive advice. We're extremely proud of this service and the results it generally yields for members at all life stages, complementing strong ong-term investment returns."

UniSuper members under advice can also utilise the review component of the fund's service offering to track their progress toward personal retirement goals - thereby they are less likely 
to under or overspend.

"Additionally, our advisers can recommend different types of retirement income stream options both inside and outside the fund, and at any point of a member's retirement journey," says Murrie.

"Highlighting the value of advice in retirement, Murrie says UniSuper members receiving advice consistently report higher levels of financial knowledge and retirement preparedness, and tend 
to take more proactive actions.

"UniSuper adds value to members with retirement products designed to deliver strong performance and outstanding value. According to Murrie, this "helps members realise great outcomes in retirement".

UniSuper's line-up of retirement products includes Flexi Pension - an account-based pension that aims to provide flexibility in retirement incomes. The Lifetime Income product offers longevity protection and is designed to provide income for life.

UniSuper members who need help visualising their retirement can tap into the fund's RetireMentors resource.

This series of online videos showcases how other UniSuper members have made their transition to retirement. Part of the series' charm is that it shows how retirement isn't the end of the story, 
it's the beginning of a new one.

What makes a super fund the best in 2026?

Superannuation assets now exceed $4.3 trillion, and member balances represent a sizable component of aggregate household wealth.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) data at June 2025 shows more than half of superannuation industry assets are invested by industry super funds (36%) ('profit to members' funds) and retail super funds (20%) ('for profit' or 'commercial super funds'), with the remainder of the sector's assets being self-managed super funds (SMSFs) at 24%, public sector funds (14%), corporate super funds (1%) and other statutory or public exempt schemes (5%).

Moneys' superannuation awards span best performing products, the best value, the most innovative as well as those that deliver the best value insurance. To be eligible for the Money awards, a superannuation product must be a public offer and be AAA-rated by Rainmaker.

Identifying Australia's top performing superannuation products involved Rainmaker reviewing MySuper products (default 'flagship' products), and asset classes that include growth, balanced, moderate (capital stable), shares, property, bonds, cash and ESG investment options.

MySuper products are manufactured by providers in two dimensions; diversified single-strategy products that spread super balances across major asset classes (Australian and international equities, fixed interest, property etc.) and lifecycle products that invest across asset classes in differing proportions, depending on a member's age (younger cohorts having higher exposures to shares and property, and lower allocations to fixed interest and cash, while older age groups are more defensively positioned).

Rainmaker identifies Australia's best performing superannuation products, MySuper single strategy products, and investment choices by assessing how they performed over the past 10, five and three years, as well as what they achieved over the past 12 months to June 30, 2025. Rainmaker's proprietary composite scoring method enables us to reward consistency and to identify those superannuation products that perform best over different market cycles.

MySuper lifecycle products were assessed in a similar way, with the exception being that we identified those products that had the best overall rankings across options designed for fund members in their teens, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. We awarded the best lifecycle product as the one that ranked the highest right across the age cohorts.

The best-value super product for young people is evaluated as the best product when we look at the returns that people in their 20s would have received considering the fees that hit their lower account balance.

Identifying the lowest cost products was undertaken by assessing the investment, administration and member fees that a fund member would be charged if they had both $10,000, $50,000 and $100,000 as their superannuation account balance. It should also be noted that zero-fee indexed options are not free because members still pay fees to be invested in the fund.

Fees for retirement products, also known as pension products, were assessed by reviewing fees they would pay if they had assets of $100,000, $500,000 and $1,000,000 in their account. So Rainmaker ranked the funds given multiple account balances for both super and pension products.

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