SMSF trustees were very confident their retirement income goals would be met, according to a new report from the SMSF Association and nabtrade.
The fifth “Intimate with Self-Managed Superannuation: A snapshot of trustee findings”, prepared by CoreData, revealed nearly twice as many SMSF trustees were confident they would achieve their desired outcome in retirement despite having expectations nearly 20 per cent higher than non-SMSF trustees.
On average, trustees who had not yet retired believed they would need $1838 a week to achieve their desired lifestyle in retirement, up from $1611 in 2013.
In contrast, non-trustee pre-retirees anticipated needing $1555 a week, up from $1192 in 2013.
However, despite anticipating a greater amount that would be needed in retirement, trustees were more confident than ever they were on track to achieve their target retirement income, the report said.
A possible factor behind the retirement confidence gap was that trustees were considerably more likely than non-trustees to be receiving financial advice, it said.
“What we see since the previous report is a rise in trustee confidence, due largely to a turnaround in investment performance,” it said.
“The increased confidence appears to be strongly linked with how well SMSF trustees are tracking in meeting retirement objectives, with 69.1 per cent of trustees reasonably confident that those objectives will be met.
“The 2015 report considers the opportunities that exist for advisers and other professionals to assist clients with all aspects of their SMSF.
“There is a continued move by trustees from the ‘do-it-myself’ culture to a ‘help-me-do-it’ approach.”
This highlighted the importance of advice and education, with clients considering access to investment expertise the key to using a financial adviser, it said.
Research for the report was undertaken from quantitative data gathered from SMSF trustees in November and December 2014.
