Australian investors – including you – lose almost $100 million over the past year

In raw dollar terms, Australians have seen  almost $100 million stripped from the  value of their managed investments,  including superannuation, over the past year.

And – in terms of true value – the losses were substantially bigger.

That’s because the $A, itself, has also lost a lot of ground in that time.

The Statistician reported yesterday that the consolidated assets of the managed funds, which hold most of the money Australians invest, fell to $1,291,835 million, in the September quarter of this year.

That represented a fall $99,181 million, or 7.1 per cent over the year.

These figures cover the total consolidated assets of superannuation funds, public unit trusts, life insurance offices and all other managed funds.

On this measure, the nation’s superannuation funds did relatively well, suffering a loss of just 4.4 per cent over the year.

Life insurance offices were hit hardest, chalking up a 13.1 per cent loss in that time, while public unit trusts saw the value of their assets fall by11.4 per cent.

These figures  are not the only ones used to measure the performance of Australia’s managed funds.

Another, broader, figure for the superannuation industry puts its losses over the year above the 6 per cent mark.

A graph, produced by the Bureau, shows that the biggest losses were incurred on money invested in shares.

That news won’t surprise anyone.

But it does add weight to the Federal government’s advice to Australia’s superannuation funds.

That was that they should invest more in property and less in shares.

The Treasurer, Wayne Swan, has said that property investment better reflects the long term nature of superannuation than shares.