APRA just released their quarterly super statistics to September 2014. Superannuation assets totalled $1.87 trillion at the end of the September 2014 quarter. Over the 12 months to September 2014 this represents a 9.6 per cent increase. Total assets in MySuper products was $378.1 billion at the end of the September 2014 quarter. Over the 12 months to September 2014 this represents a 128.2 per cent increase.
Of these, $1.14 trillion are regulated by APRA and these grew by 2.2% since the previous quarter, whereas $ 557 million are self-managed super assets managed by the ATO and this grew by 0.2% since June 2014.
However, the number of SMSFs grew by 1.6% from the previous quarter, to stand at more than 539,000 funds.
Looking in more detail at the APRA regulated funds, with more than four members, there were $23.6 billion of contributions in the September 2014 quarter, up 7.2 per cent from the September 2013 quarter ($22.0 billion). Total contributions for the year ending September 2014 were $96.8 billion. Outward benefit transfers exceeded inward benefit transfers by $471 million in the September 2014 quarter. There were $15.1 billion in total benefit payments in the September 2014 quarter, an increase of 10.9 per cent from the September 2013 quarter ($13.7 billion). Total benefit payments for the year ending September 2014 were $57.1 billion. Net contribution flows (contributions plus net benefit transfers less benefit payments) totalled $8.0 billion in the September 2014 quarter, an increase of 9.6 per cent from the September 2013 quarter ($7.3 billion). Net contribution flows for the year ending September 2014 were $37.8 billion. Net contribution flows (contributions plus net benefit transfers less benefit payments) totalled $8.0 billion in the September 2014 quarter, an increase of 9.6 per cent from the September 2013 quarter ($7.3 billion). Net contribution flows for the year ending September 2014 were $37.8 billion. The graph below shows the composition of net contribution flows for each quarter from December 2008 to September 2014.
The annual industry-wide rate of return (ROR) for entities with more than four members for the year ending 30 September 2014 was 8.2 per cent. For the five-years to September 2014 the annualised geometric-average ROR was 6.9 per cent. The graph below shows the ROR for each quarter from December 2004 to September 2014. The rate of return (ROR) represents the net earnings on superannuation assets and measures the combined earnings of a superannuation fund’s assets across all its products and investment options.
As at the end of the September 2014 quarter, 51 per cent of the $1,219.7 million investments for entities with at least four members were invested in equities; 33 per cent of investments were invested in fixed income and cash investments; 12 per cent of investments were invested in property and infrastructure and 4 per cent were invested in other assets, including hedge funds, and commodities.
Note that small APRA funds (SAFs) and Single Member Approved Deposit funds (SMADFs) do not report quarterly to APRA. Therefore the quarterly assets of these funds are estimated based on the assets they report to APRA in their annual returns. This is done using a straight line growth methodology.
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