Keeping your cool when markets get shaky
It’s important to remember that super is a long-term investment. At HESTA we actively manage our members’ savings with well-diversified investments.
balance
In this investment update, we give you a recap of markets and performance, take a look back on tariff volatility, and showcase how responsible investment can apply to bonds.
market news
A few market movements to recap the quarter ended 30 September 2025:
- Stock markets hit new highs: US stock markets (S&P500 and Nasdaq) and the Australian ASX300 reached record highs, driven by strong corporate earnings, especially in big tech and AI companies.
- Central banks easing carefully: The US Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 0.25% in September, while the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cut rates to 3.6% in August. Other central banks mostly kept interest rates unchanged. The outlook is mixed, with unemployment rates low, but signs of slowing job growth. This has led bond yields to be volatile, shifting with uncertainty around the changing path of interest rates and inflation.
- Unlisted assets: While unlisted asset classes lagged broader listed equities, which have delivered very strong performance, private equity provided strong returns in line with Australian listed equities, while property provided steady growth.
performance
In these markets, default HESTA MySuper and HESTA Income Stream Ready-Made options delivered strong returns over the 12 months, as well as the 5 years, to 30 September 2025. And importantly, all Ready-Made options have achieved returns above their long-term 10-year objectives to 30 September 20251.
Super and Transition to Retirement (TTR)
For Super and Transition to Retirement (TTR) members, our Balanced Growth option returned 10.36% over 12 months, 9.37% over 5 years and 8.16% over 10 years to 30 September 20252.
Balanced Growth option for accumulation and TTR returns to 30 September 2025
You can view all our returns on our Super performance page.
1 Except Indexed Balanced Growth, which only commenced on 1 October 2020 and has returned 10.11% average annualised return since inception to 30 September 2025.
2 Investments may go up or down. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Returns are net of investment fees and costs, transaction costs and taxes.
Retirement Income Stream
For Retirement Income Stream (RIS) members, our Balanced Growth option returned 12.17% over 12 months, 10.02% p.a. over 5 years, and 8.99% p.a. over 10 years to 30 September 2025. Our Conservative option returned 7.77% and 5.78% p.a. and 5.95% p.a. over the same periods, respectively2.
Retirement Income Stream Balanced Growth option returns to 30 September 2025
Retirement Income Stream Conservative option returns to 30 September 2025
You can view all our returns on our Income Stream performance page.
Balanced Growth is the default option for HESTA Super, while a blend of Balanced Growth and Conservative is the default strategy for the HESTA Income Stream.
2 Investments may go up or down. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Returns are net of investment fees and costs, transaction costs and taxes.
six months post-liberation day volatility
Six months after “Liberation-Day” US tariff announcements upended investor expectations in April 2025, tariffs are still in the news. However, have investment markets actually performed well or badly since then? It’s worth taking a look back for a longer-term perspective to help you consider how you might approach future volatility.
super with impactTM
Finally, we’re excited to share how we’re working to integrate responsible investment into investing in bonds to help us deliver on our Super with impactTM purpose.
Responsible investment4 in bonds
Bonds, essentially a loan to a government, are a fundamental defensive asset in any broadly diversified portfolio. “Green bonds” are a subset that have a globally accepted definition, however some may have a greater intended impact than others.
To help inform HESTA’s capital allocation, which is a key lever through which we implement our responsible investment approach, we needed a way to compare “green bonds”. Our Responsible Investment and Defensive Assets teams continue to collaborate closely to better understand how different green bonds help respond to challenges like climate change, as well as social and sustainability bonds.
Our systematic approach to assessing these bonds looks at, among other factors:
- member alignment – do the bond proceeds help manage issues that matter to our members?
- sector consideration – is the sector important in terms of Australia’s energy transition?
- materiality – are the funds directed toward and add to existing solutions to the problem?
This framework has allowed us to compare the rigour of how bonds are labelled alongside their returns potential and further allocate capital purposefully
4 To learn more about HESTA’s responsible investment approach you can read our Responsible Investment Policy.
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