Who says top performers aren’t persistent? This year’s Best of the Best fund manager Perpetual and Best of the Best super fund REST are back-to-back winners having won the coveted award last year too.

The Money magazine 2006 Best of the Best awards have just been announced and the lesson is that persistency pays off.

Perpetual backed up from last year and was again named Best Fund Manager.

Industry super fund heavy weight but quiet achiever REST also backed up from last year being named Best Super Fund.

The Money Best of the Best awards assess fund manager and super fund across all major asset classes using the research engines of Morningstar for the fund managers, Rainmaker’s SelectingSuper for the super funds, and CANNEX for the annuities.

The super fund awards drew no distinction between master trusts and industry funds but did require eligible funds to be open to the public so consumers could actually join them if they wanted.

The awards also showed how the power hitters are spread across the industry.

Merrill Lynch took out the gold award for Best Balanced Fund Manager, UBS took the award for Best Growth Fund Manager, Tyndall and Perpetual shared the award for Best Australian Shares Fund Manager, and Platinum won Best International Shares Fund Manager.

The all important Best Growth Super Fund award winners were REST, the too low profile super annuation fund Vanguard Personal, and emerging heavyweight MTAA Super.

Winners for being the Best Balanced Super Funds were NSW Bookmakers Super, REST and Promina’s Optimum Professional Super Plan.

Super watchers with their fingers on the pulse should not be surprised at all about NSW Bookmakers as they have been a consistent returner for years and their 2006 award simply recognises what they’ve been doing for years.

The Promina award also highlights that consumers looking for top super funds should look equally among industry and master trusts with no one sector owning exclusive bragging rights.

For investors wanting to take more control of their super and make more active asset sector choices, Colonial FirstChoice Personal won the gold award for Best Australian Shares Super Fund, with silver and bronze going to SUMMIT and Asgard.

SUMMIT and Asgard again, but joined by Vanguard Personal Super, took out the first three places for Best International Shares Super Funds.

CommBank’s CommInsure also took the gold award for Best Term-Certain Annuity.

But with new player MetLife taking the number two spot, this confirms that MetLife is a player to watch in this space. AMP took bronze.

Other fund managers to win awards were Russell, ING, IOOF/Perennial, ABN Amro, Advance, Credit Suisse, EQT, Macquarie, PIMCO, Deutsche, Pengana, Walter Scott and MIR.

(Financial Standard.com.au - 07 December 2005)