ATO/APRA Super Stats - with the boring bits removed!

23 June 2015

SMSF numbers
Estimated SMSFs March 2015 quarter (extracted at April 2015):

•    550,706 SMSFs  (increase over 12 months of 25,296)

•    1,044,004 members (increase over 12 months of 44,077).

SMSF super assets
Estimated size of the SMSF segment of super assets - $594.8b (as at March 2015).

The estimated total superannuation assets is $2,050b (compared with Australia’s GDP for 2014 which is about $1,950b (or about $US1,560b)).

The estimated segment breakdown is at March 2015:

•    SMSF sector                29.0%  (previously 30%)

•    Retail sector                26.6%  (previously 26.4%)

•    Industry funds sector   21.3%  (previously 20.2%)

•    Public Service sector    10.8%  (no change)

•    Corporate sector           2.8%  (previously 3.5%)

•    Exempt schemes           6.6%  (previously 6.5%)

•    Stat Fund Balance          2.9%  (no change).


The consolidation within the APRA sector has continued over the 12 months to March 2015 with six corporate funds, two industry funds, one public service and eleven retail funds winding up that period.

Statutory Fund balance is the value of assets of life companies which are held for superannuation or retirement purposes (other than assets held for a super fund).

Age spread of SMSF members
Based upon ATO information as at June 2014 the age composition of SMSF members is:

•    1.3% are children/students who are probably receiving contributions from their parents or grandparents;

•    17% are young workers and in the early accumulation phase;

•    56.1% are middle aged and in their prime accumulation phase;

•    25.7% are in retirement and in the drawdown/pension phase.

Asset size of SMSFs
Based upon the 2013 financial year the asset size of SMSFs are:

•    6.7% are Micro SMSFs  - less than $50,000 in assets;

•    5.1% are Very Small SMSFs  - between $50,000 to $100,000 in assets;

•    10.5% are Small SMSFs  - between $100,000 to $200,000 in assets;

•    24.7% are Modest SMSFs  - between $200,000 to $500,000 in assets;

•    23.4% are Median SMSFs  - between $500,000 and $1m in assets;

•    17.6% are Large SMSFs  - between $1m to $2m in assets;

•    9.9% are Very Large SMSFs  - between $2m to $5m in assets;

•    1.8% are Ultra Large SMSFs  - between $5m to $10m in assets;

•    0.4% are Uber SMSFs  - in excess of $10m in assets.

Assets per member and per SMSF
Based upon the 2013 financial year the average and median assets per member and SMSF are:

•    Average assets per SMSF member - $523,814;

•    Median assets per SMSF member - $313,003;

•    Average assets per SMSF - $992,107;

•    Median assets per SMSF - $558,870.

While SUPERCentral is not a statistician, it seems that as the average is materially in excess of the median this suggests that that there may be a significant number of SMSF members and SMSFs which have very high member balances and that there are also many SMSF members (and SMSFs) which have comparatively low balances.

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