Recent CoreData research into the SMSF sector has shown trustees who receive financial advice are less likely to experience a lag in accessing market information important to the process of running their super fund.
According to CoreData senior executive Grahame Evans this fact is reflected in the differing views between trustees and practitioners with regard to the state of the Australian economy.
“From the trustee perspective versus the adviser [we asked] do you think the Australian economy will grow at a lower speed or a faster rate in the next 12 months [and] 21 per cent of trustees thought it would speed up whereas only 14 per cent of advisers thought that it would actually speed up,” Evans revealed.
“This I think [reflects] a lack of symmetry between knowledge and the knowledge coming through to people who are actually in the industry. As [the information] ends up hitting the trustees they may end up with a different view [to what they originally expressed],” he observed.
However he recognised this delay in the gleaning of information may not be the only factor behind the more optimistic attitude toward the domestic economy communicated by SMSF trustees.
“[There might be] an optimistic bias [involved] as well. Some people who operate their own funds are more optimistic about the future [regarding] what’s going to happen [to it].”
With regard to specific asset classes practitioners were more bullish than trustees when assessing the performance of cash and Australian equities.
On these subjects 71 per cent of advisers thought cash would perform well over the coming year while only 46 per cent of trustees surveyed mirrored this sentiment.
In addition 50 per cent of advisers indicated their view was domestic equities will deliver good results over the next 12 months with 37 per cent of trustees sharing this outlook.
In contrast trustees were more positive about residential property with 29 per cent of respondents believing he asset class will perform strongly during the year to come with only 17 per cent of advisers reflecting this same attitude.
“Again I think the optimistic bias of the trustee, being the owner of the fund, will actually play some part in that [result],” Evans said.
Responses from 240 financial advisers and 925 trustees were analysed as part of the survey which was conducted online between 26 July and 5 September 2022.
