Financial information firm Defaqto has announced the launch of its 2018 guide to analysing default funds, in conjunction with NEST.

The firm says the guide, now its second year, has been repeated due to popular demand and features more default funds in the analysis this year.

It provides independent analysis of the workplace pension schemes available and their default funds, as used by 1 million employers and over 10 million employees.

The guide highlights the variety between workplace pension default funds in terms of benchmarks used, manager structure, investment approach, level of diversification, attention paid to responsible investing, performance and charging across the funds.

It also showed that no individual default fund outperforms its peers in every subject area considered.

Pan Andreas, head of insight for funds and DFM at Defaqto, said: “Bearing in mind the diversification in providers and clients, and their respective needs and objectives, it is not surprising that no individual default fund outperforms its peers in every subject area considered.

“That said, it is notable that some default funds consistently compare well to their peers across most subject areas, and arguably these represent the greatest opportunity for advisers to evidence ‘value for money’.”