Nearly a decade of super growth comes to a halt
Total Australian superannuation assets declined for the first time in nearly a decade last financial year, according to the latest data released by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).
The industry overview data revealed that assets had decreased by 2.1 per cent during the year to June 30, 2008, to stand at $1.17 trillion, suggesting that the decline is likely to be far more significant when the regulator’s statistics take account of the adverse conditions which prevailed in the latter half of last year.
And what will be disturbing for some sectors of the superannuation industry is that the APRA data has revealed the continued growth of small superannuation funds while retail funds actually declined and industry funds barely held ground.
APRA said the number of superannuation entities had increased by 8.4 per cent during the year to total 394,206, with the increase largely due to growth of ATO-regulated self-managed superannuation funds, which grew by 8.7 per cent to 30,991 funds.
When it came to member accounts, small funds also experienced the strongest growth, rising by 8.8 per cent, while the number of member accounts in retail funds grew by 5.8 per cent and those in industry funds grew by 5.5 per cent.
The APRA data also revealed the degree to which superannuation returns had gone into decline in the latter half of the financial year, stating that the return on assets for superannuation entities with more than four members had been negative 7.8 per cent for the year to June 2008.
Breaking this down, it said corporate funds had a return on assets of negative 5.3 per cent, public sector had a negative 5.7 per cent return, industry funds had a negative 5.9 per cent and retail funds had a negative 10.3 per cent.
Recommended for you
The FSCP has announced its latest verdict, suspending an adviser’s registration for failing to comply with his obligations when providing advice to three clients.
Having sold Madison to Infocus earlier this year, Clime has now set up a new financial advice licensee with eight advisers.
With licensees such as Insignia looking to AI for advice efficiencies, they are being urged to write clear AI policies as soon as possible to prevent a “Wild West” of providers being used by their practices.
Iress has revealed the number of clients per adviser that top advice firms serve, as well as how many client meetings they conduct each week.