Pension Funds With The Lowest Fees

The fees charged by your pension fund are either a fixed-dollar amount or based on a percentage of your balance, or both, and are deducted from your account balance. Fees vary based on your account balance and the investment option you choose (such as Growth, Balanced or Conservative).

Your pension fund must report all fees and costs in the product disclosure statement (PDS) for your chosen option and in your annual statement.

You might also find a schedule of fees on your fund’s website. If in doubt, call your fund and ask them to explain how much you’re being charged.

The table below shows median total fees by risk category as at March 2026. There is no single ‘average’ pension fund fee – fees vary substantially by category, fund and balance size.

We show fee data at two balance points: $50,000 and $500,000.

• A $50,000 balance represents a smaller account-based pension, for example where a retiree has also taken a partial lump sum or is well into drawdown. At this level, a 1% fee costs $500 a year.
• A $500,000 balance is representative of a member transitioning to retirement or in the earlier years of retirement. At this level, even a 0.1% fee difference costs $500 a year.

Fee percentages often look lower at higher balances because fixed-dollar administration charges become proportionally smaller as the balance grows. But the funds with the lowest fees at $50,000 are not always the same as those at $500,000, so both matter.

Source: Chant West, March 2026. Actively managed options only.

The 20 cheapest funds

The 20 cheapest pension options across all investment categories are all index options. Index funds – also known as passive funds – aim to track and replicate the performance of a market index such as the ASX 200 or a global equities benchmark. They do this by investing in all the underlying assets in that index rather than selecting individual securities, which significantly reduces management and transaction costs.

Get practical guidance from independent experts to help you make the most of your finances in retirement with a free SuperGuide account.

Find out more

Since all 20 of the cheapest options are indexed, we have removed indexed options from the per-category tables later in this article. Those tables show the cheapest actively managed funds in each risk category.

20 cheapest funds: $50,000 balance

Source: Chant West, March 2026.

The fee difference between indexed and actively managed options is particularly striking at higher balances. Indexed options typically have a fixed or near-fixed administration fee, plus a very low investment fee.

At $500,000, that fixed administration fee becomes a tiny fraction of the balance, which is why the percentage fees below look dramatically lower.

20 cheapest funds: $500,000 balance

Source: Chant West, March 2026.

At a $500,000 balance, Hostplus Pension Indexed Growth costs just $389 per year (0.08%). By comparison, the median actively-managed growth pension fund at the same balance costs 0.82% – or $4,100 a year. That’s a difference of nearly $3,700 a year, before investment returns are considered.

Cheapest actively managed funds by category

The following tables show the ten cheapest actively managed funds in each risk category. Index funds are excluded – they are listed separately above.

When SuperGuide publishes fee information, we group funds into five investment categories so that options are compared with others of a similar risk profile:

• All Growth (96–100% growth assets)
• High Growth (81–95% growth assets)
• Growth (61–80% growth assets)
• Balanced (41–60% growth assets)
• Conservative (21–40% growth assets).

As a general rule, the higher the proportion of growth assets, the higher the fees. This is because defensive assets such as cash typically carry lower management costs than equities or alternative investments.

All Growth (96–100% growth assets)

How this category compares (actively managed options):

Source: Chant West, March 2026.

5 cheapest funds: $50,000 balance

Source: Chant West, March 2026.

Get practical guidance from independent experts to help you make the most of your finances in retirement with a free SuperGuide account.

Find out more

5 cheapest funds: $500,000 balance