TPT among the top‑performing DC default funds of the past decade
In this article, Philip Smith examines newly published 10‑year performance data and explains why long‑term outcomes — not scale alone — should define quality in DC pensions.
Corporate Adviser has published 10-year performance data for DC master trust default funds using CAPAdata, its independently compiled dataset. The range of outcomes is hard to ignore.
Over the 10 years to December 2025, the top-performing fund returned 232%. The lowest returned 88%. I am proud to say that TPT ranked third in that table, generating significantly above-average returns for our members.
That is not a marginal difference. It is the kind of gap that should make the whole market stop and think.
For a long time, scale and low cost have carried a built-in assumption of safety. Big feels credible. Cheap feels efficient. Both are easy to defend. But member outcomes are what matter, and outcomes like these are a reminder that size and price do not, on their own, define value.
What appears to matter more is harder to reduce to a headline number: the quality of investment strategy, the strength of governance, the discipline of oversight, and the ability to execute consistently over time.
That is why this matters so much in the current debate. Consolidation may well have benefits. But if the Government continues treating scale itself as proof of quality, it risks learning the wrong lesson.
Australia has been grappling with the same question. Research from the Conexus Institute argues that both large and small funds can succeed if they are designed well, and warns against pursuing size for its own sake.
The right question is not: how big is the scheme?
It is: how well is it run, and what outcomes is it actually delivering for members?
The more the market is forced to answer that question with real performance data, the better.
Scale is not a strategy. Outcomes are.
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