Superannuation fees and charges are the quiet cost of your retirement savings. You rarely see them leave your account, yet over a working life they can take tens of thousands of dollars from your final balance. The good news is that once you know what you are paying, and why, you can usually cut the cost without much effort. Here is a plain-English guide to every fee your fund can charge, what most people actually pay, and how to check whether your fund is worth what it costs.
Quick answer: Most people in a default MySuper option pay between 1% and 1.5% of their balance in fees each year. On a $50,000 balance that is roughly $500 to $750 a year. Low-cost funds charge well under 1%, while anything above 1.5% is generally considered expensive. You can compare your fund’s fees and returns against every other MySuper product with the ATO’s free YourSuper comparison tool.
What Are Superannuation Fees and Charges?
Superannuation fees are the costs your fund charges to run your account and manage your investments. They cover everything from keeping your records and sending statements to paying the investment managers who look after your money. Some fees are taken straight out of your balance, so you can see them on your statement. Others are taken out of your investment returns before those returns are added to your account, so you never see a separate charge — your balance simply grows a little more slowly.
Every fund must spell out its fees in its product disclosure statement (PDS), and every MySuper product publishes a fees and costs summary for a member with a $50,000 balance. That $50,000 figure is the standard comparison point, so it is the easiest way to compare two funds side by side.
The Main Types of Superannuation Fees
There are seven types of fees and charges you might pay. Most members only ever pay the first two, but it helps to know them all.
1. Administration fees
The administration fee pays for the day-to-day running of your account: record keeping, statements, online access, member services and customer support. It is usually charged as a mix of a flat weekly dollar amount and a small percentage of your balance. For example, AustralianSuper charges $1 a week plus 0.12% of your balance a year, capped at $600 a year. Australian Retirement Trust charges $1.10 a week plus 0.10% a year, capped at $557.20 a year. Flat fees hit small balances hardest, because $52 a year is a bigger share of $5,000 than it is of $200,000.
2. Investment fees and costs
Investment fees pay the people who manage the investments inside your fund. They vary a lot depending on which investment option you are in. Low-cost index options typically cost between 0.05% and 0.30% a year, while actively managed options usually run from 0.50% to 1.50% a year or more. These fees are usually taken out of your investment returns before they are credited to your account, which is why many members never notice them.
3. Performance fees
Some funds charge a performance fee when an investment option beats its target by a set amount. It is only charged when the option performs well, and it is included in the investment fees and costs figure rather than charged separately.
4. Transaction costs
These are the costs of buying and selling the assets inside your fund, such as brokerage and stamp duty. They are usually small — often between 0.00% and 0.09% a year — and they are also taken out of returns rather than charged to your account directly.
5. Buy/sell spread
A buy/sell spread is a small cost applied when money moves in or out of an investment option. It covers the cost of buying or selling the underlying assets and is usually a fraction of a percent per transaction.
6. Insurance premiums
If you hold life, total and permanent disability (TPD) or income protection insurance inside your super, the premiums come out of your balance. These are not investment costs, but they are a real charge on your savings, and they can be one of the biggest deductions for younger members. Check your statement to see exactly what cover you have and what it costs — many members pay for cover they no longer need.
7. Advice fees
Some funds let you pay for financial advice from your super balance. This can be a one-off fee or an ongoing adviser service fee, and it only applies if you have agreed to it. If you are paying an advice fee, make sure you are actually receiving the advice.
How Much Do Most People Pay?
According to Rainmaker Information, the average MySuper fee across all funds was 0.87% a year in 2024-25. Not-for-profit funds averaged about 0.85% and retail funds about 0.96%. The regulator APRA reported that members paid around $34 billion in superannuation fees in 2022-23, which works out to about 1% of total super assets.
As a rough guide:
- Under 1% a year: low cost. Most low-fee industry funds and index options sit here.
- 1% to 1.5% a year: about average for a default MySuper option.
- Above 1.5% a year: generally considered expensive, and worth a closer look.
There is one protection built into the law: if your account balance is under $6,000, investment and administration fees are capped at 3% of your balance a year. Exit fees, which funds once charged when you left, were banned in 2019, so switching funds no longer costs you an exit fee.
Why Small Fee Differences Matter So Much
A fee difference of half a percent sounds tiny. Over a working life, it is not. The Productivity Commission has estimated that an increase in fees of just 0.5% can cost a typical full-time worker about 12% of their balance — roughly $100,000 — by the time they reach retirement.
ASIC’s MoneySmart puts it another way: a 30-year-old with $20,000 in super who cuts their fees from 2.5% to 1.0% ends up about $81,000 better off at retirement. And Morningstar data shows that two funds earning identical gross returns of 7% a year, but charging fees of 0.50% and 1.00%, produce balances of about $661,000 and $574,000 after thirty years on a $100,000 starting balance. That is an $87,000 gap from a 0.5% difference.
The reason is compounding. Every dollar taken in fees is a dollar that stops earning returns for you, year after year. Fees compound against you in exactly the same way returns compound for you.
How to Check What You Are Paying
Finding your fees takes about ten minutes:
- Read your annual statement. It lists the administration fees and insurance premiums taken directly from your balance, plus your total fees and costs for the year.
- Check your fund’s PDS or fees and costs fact sheet. This shows every fee that applies to your investment option, including the ones taken from returns.
- Compare on the ATO’s YourSuper tool. It ranks MySuper products by fees and net returns using standardised APRA data, and lets you compare up to four products side by side.
- Try ASIC’s MoneySmart super fees calculator. It shows what your fees add up to over time and what a lower-fee fund could mean for your balance at retirement.
When you compare, always compare like with like: the same balance, the same investment option, and fees plus net returns together. A cheap fund that performs badly is no bargain, and an expensive fund has to earn its keep with consistently better returns after fees.
5 Simple Ways to Reduce Your Super Fees
1. Consolidate multiple accounts
Every super account you hold charges its own set of administration fees and insurance premiums. If you have two or three accounts from old jobs, you are paying two or three sets of fees. Combining them into one account is one of the easiest savings you can make. Before you consolidate, check you are not losing insurance cover you need — you can compare cover before you move.
2. Check your investment option
If you are in an actively managed option, ask whether it is beating a low-cost index option after fees. Data from SPIVA showed that about 74% of active Australian equity managers failed to beat the S&P/ASX 200 after fees in 2025. If your option is not earning its higher fee, a lower-cost option in the same fund may be a better fit.
3. Review your insurance
Insurance premiums inside super can add up to hundreds of dollars a year. Make sure your cover matches your life now — not the life you had when you first joined the fund. Reducing cover you do not need, or removing duplicate cover across accounts, cuts a real cost.
4. Look for fee caps and discounts
Some funds cap their percentage-based admin fee, so the cost stops growing once your balance passes a set amount. Others offer lower fees for larger balances. It is worth checking whether your fund does this and whether your balance has reached the cap.
5. Switch funds if the numbers say so
If your fund charges above 1.5% a year and is not delivering above-average returns after fees, switching is simple and now free of exit fees. Use the YourSuper tool to shortlist two or three lower-cost funds, compare their net returns over five to ten years, then switch through your new fund — it handles the transfer for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good superannuation fee?
For a default MySuper option, anything under 1% a year is low cost, 1% to 1.5% is about average, and above 1.5% is generally considered expensive. Low-cost index options can cost as little as 0.05% to 0.30% a year.
Are superannuation fees tax deductible?
Fees are paid from your super balance, which is already a concessionally taxed environment, so members do not claim them as a personal tax deduction. What matters for your balance is the total fee as a percentage of your savings each year.
Can I negotiate my super fees?
Retail funds sometimes negotiate fees for large balances, but most industry and MySuper funds charge set fees that are the same for everyone in the same option. The practical way to pay less is to choose a lower-fee fund or a lower-cost investment option.
Do I pay fees if my balance is small?
Yes, but the law caps investment and administration fees at 3% of your balance a year when your balance is under $6,000. Even so, a flat weekly admin fee takes a bigger bite out of a small balance, which is another reason to consolidate stray accounts.
Where do I find my fund’s fees?
Your annual statement, your fund’s product disclosure statement, and the fees and costs summary on your fund’s website all list them. For a side-by-side comparison with other funds, use the ATO’s YourSuper comparison tool.
The Bottom Line
Superannuation fees and charges are easy to ignore because most of them never appear as a bill. But a gap of just 0.5% a year can cost around $100,000 by retirement, so the ten minutes it takes to check your fees is some of the best-paid time you will spend. Know your total fee, compare it with what low-cost funds charge, and if your fund is expensive without the returns to justify it, switching is free and straightforward. Your future self will notice the difference.
To understand how your super works as a whole, read our guide on how superannuation works. If you are thinking about accessing your super sooner, see how to get superannuation early, and for the tax side of things, do you pay tax on superannuation.
This article is general information only. It is not personal financial advice. Your super fund, balance and circumstances are unique to you, so consider speaking with a licensed financial adviser before making decisions about your super.
