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The average annual costs of running an SMSF have been grossly exaggerated by ASIC in its recent fact sheet, with actual costs landing between $1,700 and $5,800 depending on the fund’s balance, according to SMSF software provider BGL.
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ASIC overestimates SMSF running costs by $8,000
28 October 2019
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Data released by BGL using the almost 180,000 SMSF clients on its Simple Fund 360 platform as a sample showed that annual SMSF running costs for the 2018 financial year were $1,709 for funds with a balance of under $200,000; $2,736 for funds with a balance between $200,000 and $500,000; and $2,896 for funds with a balance between $500,000 and $1 million.
The annual costs rose to $3,299 for SMSFs between $1 million and $1.5 million; $3,947 for funds between $1.5 million and $3 million; and $5,774 for those with balances over $3 million.
The costs to run a self-managed fund had also remained fairly stable over time and in some cases decreased, with costs for those in the $200,000 to $500,000 bracket decreasing from $2,648 in 2015 to $2,376 in 2018.
Costs had also come down for SMSFs between $500,000 and $1 million, from $3,314 in 2015 to $2,896 in 2018, and for those between $1 million and $1.5 million, from $3,856 in 2015 to $3,299 in 2018.
The company stated that in light of this data, the $13,900 annual cost quoted in ASIC’s fact sheet, Self-managed superannuation funds: Are they for you?, was incorrect and deceptive when it came to giving new trustees an idea of what was involved in running an SMSF.
“The real data tells a very different story from the ASIC document — so different that one must question ASIC’s motive for the release of this misleading document,” BGL said.
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“This is what we get when the figures produced by one regulator (ATO) are used by another (ASIC) that seem to have a total lack of understanding of the dataset.”
The software provider said ASIC should clarify how it came to the $13,900 figure in its document, and added that it would be releasing further data to counteract the performance figures shown in the corporate regulator’s fact sheet.
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