The SMSF sector has shown solid growth over the past 12 months, with increases in the number of net establishments, funds, fund members and assets within the sector, according to the latest quarterly data released by the ATO.
The “Self-managed super fund quarterly statistical report – June 2021”, released late last week, stated the SMSF sector now holds $822 million in assets, an increase of $23 million since the March 2021 figure of $798.9 million and $80 million since June 2020.
The total amount of assets in SMSFs is at a record high level and is the fifth consecutive period in which that figure has grown since the March quarter 2020.
At the same time, the total number of SMSFs and fund members have hit the highest levels recorded since June 2016 at 597,900 funds and 1,114,529 members.
Both of those figures have also been steadily climbing since June 2020 when they were 574,775 (an increase of 23,125 to June 2021) and 1,071,788 (an increase of 42,741 to June 2021), respectively.
SMSF establishments for the June quarter were 6253 – the second highest over the past four quarters, while wind-ups were 272 – the lowest for the past four quarters and in the past five years.
According to the ATO, listed shares, and cash and term deposits are the single largest asset class holdings within the SMSF sector at 28 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively.
Investments in cryptocurrency, first included by the ATO in SMSF data in June 2019, have remained static, hovering between $212 million and $218 million for the past five quarters, while limited recourse borrowing arrangements increased in size by $3.8 million in the last quarter, and $6.7 million in the past year, to $56.9 million.
The regulator noted SMSFs almost had gender parity in terms of overall members, with 53 per cent of SMSF members male and 47 per cent female. It also found while 86 per cent of members were over 45 years of age, members with incomes under $100,000 accounted for 70.7 per cent of the total membership of SMSFs.
Using the quarterly data, the ATO was also able to update its annual SMSF population data and reported the average assets per SMSF member were $696,000 and the average assets per SMSF were $1.3 million for 2019/20.
