The best-value balanced indexed super product for 2026 revealed
NGS Super has been named Money's Best-Value Balanced Indexed Super Product as part of the 2026 Best of the Best awards.
Indexing is an investment strategy that can allow a fund to mirror market returns, often at a very low cost to investors. This year, our winner in this category is NGS Super.
NGS Super is a leading super fund for education and community-based professionals - its initials stand for 'non-government schools'. But the fund is open to everyone, and it has been helping Australians grow their super for more than 35 years.
This experience has shaped NGS Super's understanding that everyone has unique needs and goals when it
comes to their super savings and plans for retirement.
Chief executive Natalie Previtera says, "As an industry super fund, we are run only to benefit our members, so everything we do is designed to help them make the most of their super - investment returns are central to this. That's why we are focused on delivering strong, market-resilient results for our members.
"We carefully manage risk and keep costs low to ensure our fees remain competitive.
"This combination aims to capture opportunities in good times and provide stability when markets are volatile - all managed by an experienced team."
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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