@PabloEskyBruh

I use AusSuper (member direct) it has some restrictions on sizing (20% max) on stocks but covers almost all stocks in asx 300

if you are more interested IM me and can answer any other questions

it has some pretty good data reports aswell to help you keep track of performance

it suits how I invest so am happy with it

JW

Thanks @west, that’s good to hear!

I've personally never used my accumulation superfund for stock picking @PabloEskyBruh (BTW great tag).

As you would expect, everyone's structures are pretty unique to their circumstances. In my case, I've had an SMSF for years, right back to when employers (not employees) could chose what superfund they paid the SG into. Things have now changed for the better, but my strategy has always been to use my industry superfund (HostPlus Index Balanced - annual management fee something stupid like $85) as a quasi ETF options, while using my SMSF and other portfolios for stock picking.

Since turning the SMSF into pension mode a few years ago, I've continued to use HostPlus for my own annual concessional contributions up to the max, as it's still too good a tax deduction for my personal tax return......and it's still my ETF of sorts for super diversification.

Yes I could roll that into my SMSF at some stage, but having some funds just doing what an industry fund does gives me a bit of peace of mind and the fees are crazy cheap.

So sorry, instead of helping, I've just thrown up another way of looking at it, I.e. I'll pick my own stocks in all of my portfolios, but use HostPlus for the basic ETF investing.

I know there's a lot of mud thrown at SMSFs and the fees can be circa $3000/yr for returns and using a tier 1 accountant, but I've found it has paid for itself by letting me do what I like to do from an investment perspective, including in-specie transfers from my other portfolios at different times and even to hold rental property, etc.

Of course, you do you!!

Yes +1 from me, I've used AustralianSuper and CBUS, both industry super funds, and both have exactly the same rules, including:

1. You can only invest 80% of your super balance in direct shares (known as either Member Direct or Self Managed which are both the same, just the two funds have different names for them), i.e. ASX300 shares chosen by you.
2. You can't invest more than 20% of your super balance in any one company at the time of a purchase (initial trade or top-up trade) but it can grow beyond 20% with no problems, you won't need to trim it, the rule only applies to buys, same as here on SM.
3. They have a limited range of ETFs available, and you can only invest in their list (which you can research for both of them) - so for example I found a few years ago when using CBUS Self Managed that I could invest in the currency hedged physical gold ETF, QAU, but not PMGOLD, GOLD or NUGG (unhedged gold ETFs).
4. You can't invest outside of the ASX300 with either of them, and LICs are unavailable regardless of their size, so even AFIC (AFI) and Argo (ARG) are off-limits.

Differences include managed fund options, for instance for that 20% of your balance that you can not directly invest in shares, you can choose to invest in their managed infrastructure or their managed commercial property fund with CBUS, AustSuper would have different managed fund options. I think their respective lists of available ETFs (to invest in) are a bit different as well. AustSuper, being the larger fund, may have a longer list. I believe they add more ETFs to their lists every year or two.

Most of the larger industry super funds now have similar systems in place to what I have described, and they're relatively low fees, because the industry funds are not-for-profit; their only shareholders are their members, so they cover their own costs and everything else feeds back into their returns to members. That's one of the reasons why they usually outperform super options with listed companies like AMP who also need to provide a return to their shareholders (although AMP is perhaps not a great example of listed company investment returns), something the industry funds always highlight in their ads, how a few percentage points difference in annual returns can really make a big difference to your eventual balance at retirement.

I use CBUS because they had better insurance options for me for TPD - and I wanted to maintain that once my OA started getting worse (I've been a CBUS member for over 35 years), but AustSuper started their Member Direct program before CBUS copied them with their own version (called Self Managed), so I did transfer a large portion of my CBUS balance over to AustSuper for a couple of year to make use of that, and then I transferred my entire AustSuper balance back to CBUS when they offered the same optionality themselves.

I found both of them to be easy to work with - it's all done online - however they have phone helplines with actual people on the other end if you need them.

AustSuper is the largest super fund in the country though, so they are likely to be able to negotiate the lowest management fees for their managed funds - most of these industry super funds spread the risk by using a few different money managers to manage their FUM as well as having their own active investment teams - so I'm talking about that 20% again that you have to let them manage - although you can choose the strategy or managed fund type that you want to put it in (within their range of options).

Both of those funds are large, but AustSuper is the largest, so they have the economies-of-scale advantage there, which likely means they can negotiate the best insurance deals and a variety of other stuff. AustSuper also seem to be the most active in terms of taking large positions in companies OUTSIDE of the ASX300, and when you see them popping up on the Subs list for a company outside of the ASX300, you know that's their active management, not their members (who can't invest outside of the ASX300), whereas if they are Subs for ASX300 companies, it can be difficult to determine how much of that is their collective membership ownership (via Member Direct) and how much is their in-house active funds management, but that's a side-issue really.

Short version is that AustralianSuper, the one you mentioned you are considering @PabloEskyBruh is good. I've used them, and they are low cost and easy to use, as long as you go in knowing and accepting the limitations (such as the ASX300 rule).