SMSF – Self-managed superannuation's continued enormous growth in Australia

  • News & views

SMSF figures from the ATO and ASX
By all accounts self-managed superannuation in Australia continues to grow, attracting investors with much smaller funds than was originally envisaged. Dianomi runs a number of campaigns for self managed super – one SMSF client recently said that our Cost Per Click campaign was delivering the best ROI of all their advertising. The opportunity is clearly huge.
The latest estimates from the ATO are astounding:
ATO estimates March 2013:
· $500Bn estimated value of assets held in SMSF = approx. 1/3 of the industry and growing by approx. 70,000 new members pa of with assets split:
· 38% 188Bn as ASX PRODUCTS (shares, LICs, ETFs, A-REITs etc.)
· 27% 138Bn as CASH
· 15% 73Bn as REAL PROPERTY, however:
§ 11% is COMMERCIAL (probably business premises of trustees working together or direct investments)
§ 4% is RESIDENTIAL
· 10% 51Bn as UNLISTED
The research around why so little in unlisted relates to a number of factors:
· Perceived difficulty to access unlisted funds – particularly for a direct investor using paper base PDS and applications and identification
· Preference to hold/access assets directly – not via a nominee structure
· Manager cost – investors look at MERs rather than total returns after fees
· Total cost – investors do not factor in ‘invoiced costs’ for strategic and structural ‘advice’
One area that is growing around SMSFs is the provision of administration services, where a fund can receive;
· ‘real-time’ – end of day fund valuations electronically to smart phone/tablet
· Compliance – around adherence to investment strategy, contributions caps and record of transactions (buy/sells) and
· Annual tax return
For around $2,000pa, which for the average fund value of $1Mn represents a cost ratio of 0.20%.
Read more about contextclick bait and ROI.