Research from the University of Adelaide’s International Centre for Financial Services (ICFS), conducted for the SMSF Association, demonstrates the strong performance of the SMSF sector relative to APRA benchmarks during the 2021-22 financial year.
As with past studies conducted by the ICFS for the SMSF Association, the study is based on de-identified data taken from the three major SMSF software suppliers: Class, BGL and Super Concepts. The study included data from 394,415 SMSFs, which represents 67.3% of the total SMSF population.
2021-22 was a period of generally negative financial returns. According to the study, the median rates of return of SMSFs were:
In contrast, the median rate of return for APRA funds was -5.1%.
The difference of 4.1% in medians is the largest annual margin observed by the ICFS in favour of the SMSF sector between 2017 and 2022.
The study suggests that the financial performance of the SMSF sector might have been helped by the tendency for SMSFs to hold more defensive assets allocations the be underweight in international equities relative to APRA funds.
