Australia's best super fund for 2026 revealed

Hostplus has been named Money's Best Super 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

When it comes to super funds, Australians are spoilt for choice with 21 industry funds, 57 retail funds and a variety of public service and corporate funds to pick from. This breadth of choice also highlights how difficult it is to take out our top award of Best Super Fund - a title that goes to Hostplus.

David Elia, chief executive of Hostplus, says, "We're incredibly honoured by this recognition - and we see it as a reflection of our commitment to doing the right thing by our members, day in and day out.

"Rather than trying to be different for the sake of it, we focus on staying true to our purpose: helping our members retire with dignity and confidence.

"That means making thoughtful decisions, staying the course on our long-term strategy and always putting members first. This award is a welcome reminder that doing the basics well - and doing them with care - really matters."

That care shines through in the approach Hostplus takes to adding value for members.

"Delivering value to our members means focusing on strong net benefit outcomes - the returns members receive after fees and taxes. It's the most meaningful measure of how well we are helping members grow their retirement savings," says Elia.

He says Hostplus achieves solid returns by leveraging two key strengths.

"First, our size and scale allow us to keep administration fees low by spreading costs across a large membership base," he says.

"That same scale also enables us to provide a broad range of products, services and support, ensuring members have access to the tools, advice and options they may need at every stage of their super journey.

"Second, we focus on delivering strong, consistent, long-term investment performance. Together, low administration fees and strong returns over the long-term drive better net benefit outcomes, helping our members keep more of what they earn and retire with greater financial confidence."

Hostplus is also assisting members through a significant investment in new technology.

"One of the ways we're using technology to better support our members is through our award-winning digital education tool, SuperSmart," says Elia.

"It's free for members and designed to help them build their knowledge and confidence around super and retirement planning through an interactive, easy-to-use format that's available at their own pace. Whether someone's just starting out or planning their next chapter, SuperSmart helps make advice more approachable."

Hostplus won several accolades as part of the 2026 Best of the Best awards, including Best Balanced Super Product, Best MySuper Single Strategy Product, and Innovation on Digital Advice Tools.

Want more Best of the Best? Australia's best-value super fund for young people revealed

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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