What is the average SMSF balance in Australia?
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) have released their latest statistics for self-managed super funds (SMSF) for the March 2025 quarter. The data is estimated due to the primary data source coming from SMSFs annual returns which are lodged many months after the end of each financial year and some details are from 2022/23 year.
The latest available ATO statistics:
| Details | Number or $’s |
| Total number of SMSFs | 646,168 |
| New SMSFS established (after allowing for exit funds) March Quarter | 9,659 |
| Total estimated assets of SMSFs | $1.01 trillion |
| Total number of SMSF members | 1,197,293 |
| Average assets per member (at 30/6/2023) | $835,265 |
| Average assets per SMSF (at 30/6/2023) | $1,550,571 |
The SMSF industry continues to grow with $1.01 trillion dollars in assets.
The number of SMSFs and members has steadily increased. Since 2019, members have grown by over 129,000 and funds have risen by over 77,000 being 14%. The average assets per fund have grown by $273,000 in the previous 4 years.
There are only 0.2% of SMSFs who have assets between $20mil. and $50mil. Only 5.3% of SMSFs have between $0 to $50,000 which would make it difficult to sustain the cost of having a SMSF. 66% of SMSFs have assets between $200,000 and $2mil. It appears that the percentage of SMSF members that may be affected by the proposed Div296 ($3mil tax) is estimated by the government to be 80,000 members which is about 6% of total SMSF members.
SMSF Fund and Member Demographics
The ratio of male to female members has remained relatively steady with 53% of members being male and 47% are female. Our SMSF population 45 and over are represented by 85% of all SMSF members which has not changed significantly over the years. 38.4% of SMSF members are 65 and older. At 65 all of a member’s super is no longer preserved and the member is able to access their super as a pension or a lump sum payment.
SMSF members earning taxable income in 2022/23 year above $100,000 accounted for 40% of SMSF members. This appears to be increasing as in June 2020 only 29% of SMSF members earned above $100,000.
Interestingly looking back at the statistics from prior years new SMSF funds setup via state appears materially unchanged with NSW and Victoria establishing 65% of new funds with Queensland 19%, Western Australia 8%, South Australia 6% and Tasmania, ACT and the Northern Territory collectively starting 2% of new funds. The statistics for establishing new SMSFs also appears to be very similar to SMSFs operating in each state as well as percentage of members and the value of assets.
The percentage of administration and operating expenses of a SMSF compared to the total expenses of a SMSF have risen slightly from 2019 increasing from 41% to 44%. In 2023 the median administration and operating expenses for an SMSF was $4,629 compared to 2019 when the cost was $3,617. This compares to our pricing as a wholesale provider at between $1,300 and $2,000 per fund plus GST.
Types of Investments
The ATO report highlights where SMSF trustees are allocating their resources. The two major asset classes continue to dominate being listed equities and cash and term deposits. 32% of fund assets are invested into listed shares and trusts and 16% are invested into cash and term deposits. Unlisted trusts (including unlisted managed funds) and other managed investments account for 19% of fund assets.
Commercial property is often cited as a reason why SMSF members want to establish their own SMSF. Many small to medium sized business owners want to control their business by securing premises to ensure continuity of their operations and the rent paid to the fund can be used to pay the mortgage or build up wealth in the SMSF for the members retirement. 11% of SMSF assets relate to commercial property. Only 6% of fund assets are in residential property both of while are subject to the stricter valuation requirements from the government.
Crypto assets represent less than 1% which may be a result of restrictive compliance and regulatory rules and possible risk averse SMSF trustees.
Other assets such as investments in collectables have remained steady over the last few years and are currently less than 1% of fund assets. Overseas assets including property and shares represent only 2.4% of fund assets which has not grown significantly since 2019.
Unlisted shares are often very problematic for SMSF auditors due to the lack of markets to obtain transparent valuations and often involve related parties. Only 1.4% of fund assets are in unlisted shares so the risk to the overall SMSF market is minimal.