Look beyond numbers to help advise your clients

“In the June quarter alone, there were more than 8000 new establishments and with that, you would expect to see a jump in members as well,” he said in the SMSF Adviser podcast.

The number of SMSFs in Australia has risen more than two per cent in the past year and they now hold more than $884.6 billion in assets.

“When you get to numbers like that it can lose a bit of perspective and it's quite abstract and nebulous,” Mr Dunn said.

“But there is a lot of money being held in SMSFs. The overall super sector is worth about $3.4 trillion so SMSFs hold about 28 per cent of that and it’s a good chunk of the industry.”

He said that 47 per cent of SMSF trustees are female, with 87 per cent being 45 years or older, and it is these numbers that should be looked at more closely by advisers.

“The two things for those that have a real level of intrigue around these numbers and what it means for their business is to be looking not at the number at the top - not the thousands of funds that are being set up – but the pockets in the demographics of the people who are establishing SMSFs,” he said.

“How many of these people are between 35 and 45? The average age, historically was actually beyond 50 years but now it is continuing to drop and what we're seeing is a fairly sizable shift in the age of people becoming interested in managing their superannuation.”

He said if advisers can then apply that to their practice they will have a better understanding of their clients.

“To me, the important part of all these numbers is to be understanding not just that there's thousands of SMSFs being set up but where they are actually coming from?” he said.

“Then to determine how that fits within my practice and to be able to make sure you're leveraging off that.”