Super By Fund Type To March 2025 - SMSF Funds The Big Winners

APRA recently published its latest superannuation data by fund type, covering the period up to March 31, 2025. We combined this with financial adviser information, population stats from ABS, and recent SMSF data from ATO.

This analysis reveals trends that may affect advisory firms, licensees, and wealth management companies. Member interactive dashboards have been updated for customised charts. Note: APRA has not updated asset allocations since December 2024.

Note: Full Set of Dashboards Available To Members - Join Here First month is only $39.00.

Key Findings (With Dashboard Numbers Referenced):

The main finding is that Industry Funds continue to march ahead of other funds. SMSFs continue to benefit from members transferring from mostly Industry Funds at record amounts over a 12-month period.

Key Highlights

  • Growth This Quarter (D2 - select Chart Table $ and % Growth) - Net assets for all APRA funds and SMSF Funds dipped slightly. Net assets (for APRA Funds with $50 Mil or more in assets) dropped to $2,973 Bil from $2,986 Bil. Over 12 months it is up from $2,784 Bil. SMSFs dipped to $969 Bil from $976, but up from $943 Bil over 12 months.

  • Investment returns (D3 - select charts and dates) - The ‘Quarterly Totals Table’ shows that over the last quarter, Retail Funds slipped to (-1.1%), behind Industry Funds at (-0.7%). Over a rolling 12 months, Public funds are at 5.3%, Industry Funds at 5.1% and Retail slipped to 4.7% after previously being ahead. Over two years, Retail Funds are at 16.4% and Industry Funds at 15.1%.

  • Note: Our analysis at the Individual Super Fund level clearly showed that major Retail funds with better returns than their counterparts. Read The Blog Post Here.

  • Net Transfers To SMSF Funds (D7) - See Chart Below - Net transfer to SMSFs from Industry Funds are now running at well over $1 Billion a month. The rolling 12 months is at -$4,817 M (or -$4.8 Bil). Back at Q1 2024, the rolling 12 months net transfer was at $3,484 Bil.

  • SMSF funds generally drag funds from all other fund types. Over recent times, there has been a significant upturn in the assets being transferred from Industry funds. As the chart below highlights, the transfers from Industry funds is much larger than other fund types, whereas it was reasonably proportional in 2022.

  • Net Flows Dashboard (D5) - Of APRA based funds, Industry funds still dominate net flows with $20.54 Bil this quarter, well ahead of Retail Funds at $3.78 Bil. Over a rolling 12 months, Industry Funds picked up on growth after losing momentum over previous quarters.

  • Adviser Opportunity ( Dashboard 1) - As the number of advisers has steadied, the opportunity in terms of super fund assets per adviser has also steadied. There total assets for APRA and SMSF funds, when divided by the number of advisers as of March 2025, shows a $253 Mil per adviser opportunity, this is slightly down from $256 Mil last quarter. Back in Dec 2018, it was only $88 Mil.

Members have access to 10 dashboards of data highlighting key move net of the main data points associated with Superannuation Funds. We have also updated our SMSF dashboards which provide significant detail to the SMSF sector.

Rolling 12-Month of Net Transfers To SMSF Funds

You may also wish to see our detailed analysis of SMSF Funds, which also includes an overlay of Advisers

Colin Williams

Colin is the founder of Wealth Data. A career spanning 30 years in financial services, mostly in general manager positions and consulting roles with a focus on financial advice.

https://wealthdata.com.au/
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Financial Adviser Market Insights, June 5, 2025