ATO data reveals surprise wealth trend among Aussies years from retirement: ‘Shifting rapidly’
More mid-career Aussies are looking to take greater control over their retirement investments as self-managed super funds surge past $1.1 trillion in assets.
When it comes to the easiest way to build long-term wealth under the current tax rules, Australians are consistently urged to take an interest in their superannuation account. And for a growing number of people, that means taking actual control over their compulsory retirement fund.
Research shows a majority of workers pay little attention to their super balancer. But the sector has seen a nearly $50 billion shift in recent years of certain Aussies paying very close attention to their investments by moving them into a Self-Managed Super Fund (SMSF).
It’s been driven from a surprising group of Aussies and now fuelled by recent comments from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese suggesting super fund could invest in the national interest
“The interesting part of late is people who have just lost a bit of trust in what the industry and retail funds are doing, or what the government is saying about super as a national asset and what that might mean,” he told Yahoo Finance.
“We’ve had a bit of that. It’s real.”
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The latest ATO data show there were 12,264 new SMSFs set up in the June quarter, and more than 50,000 for the <a href="https://bitcomme.com/moonshot-ai-rolls-out-kimi-model-for-financial-sector/” title=”Moonshot AI rolls out Kimi model for financial sector”>financial year, marking a record year for the SMSF sector.
There is now a total of 680,301 established SMSFs owned by more than 1.246 million Australians (as an SMSF can have multiple members). Inside they who hold more than $1.1 trillion worth of assets.
“We see in the data, it’s obviously growing quickly,” Antoni said of more people moving to a self-managed fund.
Interestingly, it is younger workers where the trend has been most pronounced with 35 to 44-year-olds the biggest cohort of new entrants, accounting for more than 39 per cent in the June quarter.
Those between the age of 35 and 44 now make up 12.9 per cent of SMSF members, the second most of any 10-year age group, just behind 75 to 84-year-olds at 13.8 per cent
“Whatever’s driving this, it isn’t people approaching retirement making a late structural decision,” finance broker Joseph Sukkar noted.
Data from wealth management company Hub24 and shared with the AFR this month showed about $47 billion was rolled out of industry, retail and public-sector super funds and into SMSFs over the past four years to the end of June, with Millennials and Gen X overwhelmingly behind it.
