Rainmaker Information estimates there were 7,079 contestable investment mandates across the universe as at September 2025.
Managed accounts was the largest market segment with 3,844, followed by 2,321 for super, 703 for investment managers, and 211 for government agencies.
There were an estimated 44 mandate appointments from not-for-profit (NFP) super funds and investment managers. For model portfolio there were estimated 342 mandates appointed in the 12 months to the end of September 2025.
Rainmaker Information's universe of contestable assets across superannuation increased from 2,390 to 2,321 over the quarter.
Asset classes:
Of the total number of mandates by asset class, international equities(1,864) had the most mandates, followed by alternatives (1,634), Australian equities (1,131), international and Australian fixed with 744 and 639 respectively, property (595), cash (385), and diversified (87).
In percentage terms, 42% of the contestable mandate universe belongs to equities, followed by alternatives taking a 23% share. Fixed income was next with 20%, and property 8%.
Alternatives proved the busiest asset class at the manager level, with 362 managers running alternatives mandates. International equities was next with 180 managers competing in the asset class, and there were a 129 for Australian equities.
Australian fixed interest saw the largest increase in net financial flows into the asset class, with $26.4 billion in positive flows respectively. Australian equities received the largest outflow of $79.1 billion.
International equities had the highest number of mandate opportunities in super, with 365, equating to 15.1% of the market.
International equities also had the highest number of mandate opportunities in model portfolios with 1,304 (33.9% share) followed by Australian equities with 717 (18.7% share).
Managers:
There were 592 individual managers running the 7,079 mandates across eight asset classes.
The top five entities running the most mandates as of September 2025 were BlackRock, Vanguard, Betashares, Macquarie and AMP.
These five entities ran 1,755 mandates in total, a 26% share of the overall market.
Over the past year State Street Investment Management was appointed the largest single mandate of $2.24 billion.
Super funds and asset consultants:
Hostplus is the super fund with the most mandates, at 320, with 201 of these sitting in alternatives.
AustralianSuper has 64 mandates, they have the largest average size of $6.3 billion.
Hostplus awarded five mandates over the past 12 months, the most of all super funds, with Cbus and Rest awarding five and four respectively.
Frontier (14) and JANA (11) were the asset consultants associated with the most mandates. Between them they were associated with 56.8% of mandates appointed in the year.
51% of mandates are appointed alongside a single asset consultant, 38% use multiple, while the remaining 11% are handled internally.
.svg){kind=logo}
