The latest Roy Morgan Research survey of members of industry funds and retail funds shows a surprisingly big gap in satisfaction levels among those with higher account balances.

While industry funds have out-done retail funds every month since 2002 in the Roy Morgan poll, they have increased their satisfaction levels over the last 12 months by 1.5 percentage points, while members' satisfaction with retail funds declined by 0.1 per cent.

"Our research shows that industry funds are viewed much more favourably by their members than retail funds when it comes to their performance," says Roy Morgan Research industry communications director, Norman Morris.

Industry funds have higher satisfaction at all balance levels.

The biggest lead in satisfaction that industry funds have over retail funds is among those members with balances between $100,000 and $250,000, where industry funds lead by 8.5 percentage points.

But the big surprise is with account balances of $700,000 or more, where the industry fund satisfaction level is 84 per cent – six points higher than retail funds.

The accepted wisdom is that those with higher account balance are likelier to be happier with retail funds or self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) than with industry funds.

Industry funds have consistently out-performed retail funds; though, the gap is closing.

While the survey asks fund members only about their satisfaction with their funds' performance there's no doubt fund members do bring other aspects of their experiences with their funds into their reporting of satisfaction levels.

Kirby Rappell, the head of research at SuperRatings, says: "Obviously, fees and performance remain very important."

He adds that the results are also likely to partly reflect the "significant uplift in the member servicing capabilities of many industry funds in recent years with improved outbound calling, seminars and advice capabilities."

Industry funds have also been focusing on retaining members at the point of retirement and putting more effort into retaining members with higher account balances generally, Rappell says.

Industry funds, like retail funds, are offering many more direct investments – the sort of investments, such as Australian shares, usually available only to those running their own funds.

However, is it too much of a stretch to think that the string of financial advice and other scandals at most of the big banks has something to do with it.

The scandals may be bigger influences on those with higher account balances as they are probably more engaged with their super than those with low balances.

The satisfaction results could also be pointing to higher levels of trust in the industry super funds' not-for-profit model.

That's the very model the Turnbull government is determined to "reform".

The government wants industry super funds to have governance standards more akin to those of the big banks. That's not something the 5-million members of industry funds would likely relish.

Twitter: @jcollett_money