One Default Super Fund Just Failed the 2026 Test: How to Check Yours
APRA failed 12 super products in 2026, including one MySuper default with 66,500 members. Here's what the test measures and how to check your fund.
Every August the financial regulator hands out a report card that almost nobody reads, on the second-biggest pot of money most Australians will ever own.
On 28 August 2026, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) published the results of the annual superannuation performance test. It graded 547 super products, covering about 61% of all the money sitting in APRA-regulated super funds. Twelve of them failed.
One of those twelve matters more than the others, because it is a MySuper product: the default option your employer pays into when you never chose a fund yourself. It is the first MySuper failure since 2023.
What the test actually measures
The performance test is not a one-year snapshot or a popularity contest. It compares a product's net investment return, meaning what you actually kept after investment costs and administration fees came out, against a benchmark portfolio built to match that product's own mix of shares, property, bonds and cash.
The comparison runs over eight years. One bad year will not sink a fund, and one good year will not save one.
A product fails if it finishes more than 0.5 percentage points a year below that benchmark. That sounds like a rounding error. It is not, and the maths is below.
Two things follow a failure:
- Fail once, and the trustee must write to every member within 28 days, say plainly that the product failed, and point members to the government's comparison tool.
- Fail twice in a row, and the product is closed to new members until it passes again. Existing members can stay, but no new people can join.
Who failed in 2026
The scoreboard, straight from the regulator's release:
- 1 of the 50 MySuper products tested failed: the Balanced Growth MySuper option offered by BUSS (Queensland) Pty Ltd, better known as BUSSQ. It covers around 66,500 member accounts and $6.4 billion in assets as at 30 June 2026.
- 11 of the 141 platform trustee-directed products failed. These are the investment menus inside wrap and platform accounts, usually accessed through a financial adviser rather than chosen by a default.
- 5 of those platform products have now failed at least two years running, so they are shut to new members.
- 6 trustees were responsible for all 12 failures between them.
A failure is not a collapse
Failing the test does not mean your money is at risk, frozen or gone. It means the product's returns after fees have lagged a fair benchmark over eight years. Your balance is still yours, the normal access rules are unchanged, and you can move it at any time at no cost.
The wider picture is better than the headline
Twelve failures out of 547 is not a system in crisis. Across MySuper products the median result was 0.27 percentage points a year above benchmark, so the typical default fund beat the mark it was measured against. Administration fees have kept falling across every product type, though platform products remain materially more expensive than the rest.
It also helped that returns were strong. SuperRatings put the median balanced option at 9.4% for 2025-26, and Chant West put the median growth fund at 9.5%, with international shares doing most of the lifting.
None of which helps you if you happen to be in one of the twelve.
What half a percent actually costs
Here is why a 0.5 percentage point gap is worth five minutes of your evening.
Take a 35-year-old earning $90,000 with $70,000 already in super, planning to work until 65. Their employer pays the Super Guarantee at 12%, which is $10,800 a year, and the fund takes 15% contributions tax on the way in, so roughly $9,180 a year is actually invested.
- At a 7.5% net return over 30 years: about $1,562,000 at 65
- At a 7.0% net return over the same 30 years: about $1,400,000
- Difference: roughly $162,000
Worked example
It bites later in life too. A 45-year-old on $110,000 with $180,000 in super and 20 years to run ends up with about $1,250,000 at 7.5% and about $1,156,000 at 7.0% — a gap of roughly $94,000 for the same salary, the same contributions and the same 20 years. These are nominal figures with no pay rises and no insurance premiums assumed, so treat them as a sense of scale rather than a forecast. The scale is the point.
How to check your own fund in five minutes
You do not need an adviser or a spreadsheet for this part.
- Find the exact investment option you are in, not just the fund. This is where most people go wrong: one fund can offer a dozen options, and the test grades the option. If you never actively chose, you are almost certainly in the MySuper default.
- Log into myGov, open the linked ATO service and go to the YourSuper comparison tool. It ranks MySuper products by fees and net returns and labels each one Performing, Underperforming, or Not assessed for products without enough history.
- Read your fees in dollars, not percentages. Your annual statement shows the total dollar figure for administration, investment and any adviser fees. Percentages hide the size of the number.
- Check whether you have more than one account. Several jobs can mean several accounts, each charging its own fees and possibly its own insurance premiums.
- Watch your mail and your inbox. If your product failed, the letter has to arrive within 28 days of the result.
The trap: passing is not the same as winning
The test is a floor, not a ranking. A product that beats its benchmark by 0.01 percentage points passes, and so does one that beats it by two. Plenty of the system is not tested at all: the 547 products assessed cover about 61% of APRA-regulated member money, products with too little history are not rated, and self-managed super funds sit outside the test entirely. "My fund passed" is the beginning of the question, not the answer.
Before you switch, check these
Changing super funds is genuinely easy now, often a few taps in an app or through myGov. That is exactly why it is worth slowing down for ten minutes first.
- Insurance is the big one. Most super accounts carry life, total and permanent disability, or income protection cover. Closing the old account cancels it, and if your age or health has changed since you first got it, the new fund may not offer the same terms, or any. Get the new cover in place before you close the old account.
- Moving means selling out of one set of investments and buying into another. If markets move while the transfer is in flight, you wear it.
- Exit fees are largely gone, but buy-sell spreads still apply when units are sold and bought.
- Give your employer the new fund details, or contributions keep flowing to the old account and you are back to paying two sets of fees.
- One year of returns is noise. Chasing last year's top performer is how people end up switching repeatedly and catching the worst of both.
The bottom line
Twelve failures out of 547 products, a median default fund beating its benchmark, and fees still falling — the system is in better shape than it was when this test started in 2021.
But averages do not pay anyone's retirement. If you are in one of the failed products, or in one that scraped over the line, a half-percent lag compounded across a working life is measured in six figures. Five minutes in the YourSuper tool is probably the highest-value piece of financial admin available to you this year.
FAQ
How do I find out if my super fund failed the 2026 test?
Two ways. If your product failed, the trustee must write to you within 28 days of the result explaining the failure and pointing you to the YourSuper comparison tool. You can also check for yourself at any time: log into myGov, open the ATO service and go to YourSuper, which labels each MySuper product Performing, Underperforming or Not assessed.
What happens to a super product that fails twice in a row?
It is closed to new members until it passes the test again. Existing members are not forced out and can stay put, but the product cannot accept anyone new. In the 2026 results, five platform trustee-directed products had failed at least two consecutive years.
Does the performance test cover every super fund?
No. The 2026 test assessed 547 products, covering about 61% of the money held in APRA-regulated super funds. Products without enough performance history are not rated, and self-managed super funds are outside the test altogether.
Should I switch funds if mine underperformed?
Underperformance is a strong reason to look closely, not a reason to switch the same afternoon. Compare fees in dollars and long-term net returns, and sort out your insurance cover before closing the old account, because replacement cover is not guaranteed if your age or health has changed. For a large balance or if you are close to retirement, licensed financial advice is worth the cost. This is general information, not financial advice.
Run your own numbers