‘Your superannuation is underperforming’: the letter that changed everything for my colleague

As you do in an editorial room, we were kicking around story ideas when one of my colleagues - let's call her Emma - mentioned she’d once received a letter from her super fund admitting her investment option was a dud. This is the kind of letter they’re legally required to send when a fund’s MySuper option fails the government’s performance test and has to shame itself to its members.

Emma said it casually, but it caught my attention. I realised there was probably more to the story, and that it could be the perfect way to show why choosing the right super fund matters, how people end up in default products without realising it, why MySuper exists in the first place, and just how seriously the government treats poor performance.

After all, many of us push our super to the background because it feel so far into the future but as you'll see, Emma didn’t realise it either.

How Emma ended up in a dud super fund

Back when Emma first started working as a wide-eyed recent grad, super was the last thing on her mind, as is the case with many in her shoes. So when she didn’t choose her own fund, she defaulted into the fund chosen by her employer. 

Back then, the rules for default funds weren’t as strict as they are now, so many people ended up in funds that ate up what little balances they had with fees and unclear measurements on the fund's performance. 

“When I first started working, no one really talked about super,” Emma said. “I just knew that my employer paid it on my behalf. I remember not having much, and then I stopped working when I had kids.”

The MySuper reforms

During her years at home with the kids, the government brought in its ‘MySuper’ reforms in 2014, designed to protect people from dud default investments. The fund she was already with moved her balance into its new MySuper investment product automatically.

When Emma returned to work in 2018, the fund's name was familiar and she had no reason to question it so she gave the fund details to her new employer.

MySuper helped tidy up the system, but it doesn't guarantee strong performance - nothing can. So in 2020, the government introduced the ‘Your Future, Your Super’ reforms, which made funds that fell short own up to it… in writing.

That’s when the first ominous letter arrived in 2021, three years after Emma started working again, telling her her MySuper product hadn’t performed well.

“I didn't think much of it. I thought it was referring to the fund's performance for just that period - and I know that performance can go up and down so I just ignored it,” she said.

Her first and only mistake.

The second letter of shame that changed everything

A year later, almost to the day, the second letter arrived. Emma’s fund had to shamefully explain to her that it had failed her yet again. She finally logged into her account to see what was going on.

“I’d been back at work for a few years by then,” she told me. “My contributions were going in regularly, and I remember thinking, hang on, this is actually my money. I’m putting more and more money in, but my balance is going backwards.”

That’s when Emma sprung into action.   

She spoke with a friend who works in super, asked her husband which fund he was with, and looked up APRA’s performance figures to get a sense of how hers compared.

“I remember sitting at the kitchen table one night. I had the laptop open and thought, I’m just going to get this done.”

She found a fund she liked and made the switch. “It was really easy,” she said. “My new fund did all the paperwork. I just had to sign the forms.”

A few months later, her balance started to move up instead of down. “It felt like such a relief,” she said. “Like I was finally in control.”

How much difference one super switch can make

Emma’s story isn’t unusual. Mozo research shows just how much difference it can make to be in a strong-performing fund. As part of the 2026 Mozo Experts Choice Awards for Superannuation, we compared 52 funds and more than 650 investment options to find those delivering the best long-term outcomes.

Over five years, a $100,000 balance in a top-performing fund would have earned between $8,494 and $23,449 more than one in a poor performer. On $250,000, that gap jumps to as much as $58,000.*

Let this - and Emma's story - be a huge reminder of what’s at stake.

* Figures are intended to be illustrative of the potential for difference between high and low performing options. Analysis compares investment options that won an Exceptional category award in the 2026 Mozo Experts Choice Awards for Superannuation, versus all other investment options in the same award category. Figures represent the average 5 year net returns of winning options versus non-winning options on a fixed starting balance of either $100k or $250k without accounting for any ongoing superannuation contributions. The range of results refers to different awards categories: $8,494 is the result of the calculation when applied to MySuper options and the higher figures relate to High Growth options with very high exposure to growth assets and investment risk. Historical performance data sourced from APRA's Quarterly Superannuation Statistics (effective 31 March 2025), excluding superannuation options without 5 years of performance data. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.