An empirical analysis of Australian superannuation fund expenses

This study investigates the determinants of expense ratios of Australian superannuation funds. No prior research on this topic exists despite the importance of expense ratios for fund selection. We relate expense ratios to fund age, size, investment objective, sales charges, fund family membership, risk-adjusted return, and wholesale/retail category. Average expense ratios for wholesale funds are considerably lower than those of retail funds. For retail funds, expense ratios are positively related to investment objective and sales charge, and negatively related to fund age. For wholesale funds, they are negatively related to investment objective and positively related to fund age and size.