The latest analysis into super benefit rollovers from an Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)-regulated fund into an SMSF has shown on average the process takes 6.6 business days to complete.
Grow Super performed the assessment on the number of transfer requests it put through SuperStream over the past 12 months.
“We record when we trigger the transfer request via our SuperStream software (Class) and when we get the approval message. You need to add a couple of business days on for the actual cash to arrive in the SMSF bank account,” Grow Super director and founder Kris Kitto explained.
During this period, the sector service provider initiated a total of 1746 rollover requests from an APRA-regulated fund into an SMSF. From this total, 1340 were approved and completed, 182 were rejected, 213 were submitted but not paid and 11 are yet to be processed.
Apart from recognising the average amount of time it took a public offer fund to process a rollover request, the study found the fastest transfer occurred on the same day, while the slowest one took 71 business days.
According to the data, the super funds that exceeded the industry average rollover processing time of 6.6 business days were HostPlus (11 days), Retail Employees Superannuation Trust or REST (10 days), AMP Super Fund (nine days), Mercer Super Trust (nine days) and Australian Super (eight days).
UniSuper was found to be the most efficient fund in processing rollovers into an SMSF. Over the analysis timeframe, it completed 51 transfers in an average time of two working days, with some rollovers being completed on the same day the request was made.
Kitto acknowledged some of the influencing factors when assessing rollover speed.
“Transfer times can be impacted by how long it takes the account holder, that is, the member, to send their ID and SMSF bank statement to their super fund,” he said.
Further, he pointed out transfers are made less efficient because some APRA-regulated funds still require members to provide original certified copies of identification documents and SMSF bank statements via regular mail.
With regard to the volume of rollover requests processed, AustralianSuper completed the most, 204, followed by Australian Retirement Trust, 191, and HostPlus, 124.
Superannuation regulations require super funds to complete rollovers within three business days after a valid transfer request has been received, the account holder identification and SMSF bank account details have been provided and all relevant credentials have been validated via the ATO SMSF verification service.
