The asset mix of SMSF members on BT Panorama, made up predominantly of trustees receiving financial advice, has remained largely consistent in recent months, despite the market volatility caused by COVID-19.
Recent BT Panorama data revealed SMSFs’ asset mix on the platform remained fairly steady during the past few months, apart from a slight increase in allocations to cash in March.
Cash holdings for SMSFs rose to 10 per cent to 11 per cent from March to July, up from 7 per cent to 8 per cent in January and February.
According to BT Financial Group SMSF strategy national manager Neil Sparks, the relatively steady investment behaviour of SMSFs in the face of heightened market uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic could be attributed to their reliance on quality, long-term advice.
“From our perspective, we have a high allocation of advised SMSFs. What you’re seeing is those clients that value advice [who] obviously then take the advice [given]. And the advice over many years has been don’t have knee-jerk reactions to market movements. If you’ve got a good strategy in liquid asset allocation, stay the course,” Sparks told selfmanagedsuper.
“[T]hese are advised clients and they are following the advice given to them by their professional advisers, and they’re prepared to ride through market volatility by remaining invested.”
In addition, SMSF advisers and their clients accounted for around one-third of total funds under management (FUA), or $9 billion of total FUA, with 11,800 active SMSF accounts on the platform as of July 2020. FUA had also grown at a rate of around 25 per cent over the past 12 months.
Sparks noted the continued popularity of the platform among SMSFs over the past 12 months showed BT Panorama was still resonating with advisers, trustees and accountants, and attributed much of its success to the unique functionality of its recently launched member dashboard.
“One of the main features that we’ve released in the last 12 months is the new member dashboard. It was launched mid-2019 and this really is a market-leading feature for platforms. I don’t know of any other platform with this level of integration,” he said.
In April, BT Panorama revealed it had experienced a significant jump in usage of its mobile app feature by SMSF clients, with individuals accessing the service in this manner more than tripling in the back half of 2019.
