The report noted an improvement across all four categories of super funds over the last year, with retail funds’ customer satisfaction increasing by 6.4 percentage points to 69.3 per cent, topping the list.

This was a record high level of satisfaction with retail funds, although still the lowest of the four categories.

Industry funds went up 2 percentage points to 69.5 per cent – the highest level of satisfaction since November 2022.

In addition, customer satisfaction with public sector funds rose 0.8 percentage points to 75 per cent, its highest level since June 2022.

Despite hitting a low point in July 2023, super satisfaction with financial performance has remained significantly higher than the long-term average of 59 per cent post-pandemic and is now approaching the record high of 72 per cent reached in January 2022.

Michele Levine, chief executive of Roy Morgan, said customer satisfaction with super funds had improved in recent months as the ASX200 stock index reached new record highs.

“Overall customer satisfaction has increased consistently over the last two years and is up 3.1 per cent points from a year ago and is now over 10 per cent points above the long-term average over the last 18 years of 59 per cent,” Levine said.

One factor likely to be driving the rapidly increasing satisfaction for retail funds over the last year, compared with industry funds, was the higher investment exposure they tend to have to equities, Levine said.

“The strong share-market returns over the last year will be having a bigger impact on the bottom line for retail funds than industry funds.”

“Several retail funds have performed exceptionally well over the last year, including Macquarie, which now has the highest customer satisfaction of any retail fund.”

Industry funds that stood out with large increases over the last year included HESTA, Aware, Cbus, REST Super, AustralianSuper and UniSuper.

“UniSuper continues to be the super fund with the highest customer satisfaction of any industry fund ahead of the fast-rising HESTA in second place,” Levine said.

“In recent years, many super funds have merged or announced their intention to merge. Roy Morgan has extensive data on how these mergers and acquisitions affect the customer satisfaction of the super funds involved. A key message raised by customers is the importance of communication and a smooth transition process for the members throughout.”

She added that due to legislative changes, the super industry was continuing to consolidate, with larger players taking steps to increase their size, clout, and assets under management.

“In an increasingly competitive industry, it is more important than ever before for larger and more complex super funds to maintain a high level of customer satisfaction and market-leading investment returns.”