Superannuation Fees and Asset Allocation

There is considerable debate about the size of fees charged by superannuation funds. This paper investigates both investment fees and administration fees and shows that there are economically valid reasons why most investment fees are set at their current level. Our results show that on average, retail funds are charging both higher investment fees and administration fees than other funds. A defence of higher administration fees can be easily achieved given the opacity that surrounds this fee type. However, it is difficult to justify why investment fees are higher, on average, when the cost (i.e., riskiness) of asset classes is incorporated into our analysis