SMSFs looking to offshore investments.

SMSF Trustees, who now control the single largest pool of superannuation assets in Australia, are increasingly utilising advanced stock research tool Skaffold to plan for and manage their retirement portfolio, according to new data from Skaffold members. Additionally, they are more likely to seek information about offshore stocks than other investors.

Skaffold General Manager, Chris Batchelor said more than 35% of Skaffold members have indicated they have an SMSF and that they use Skaffold as a primary tool to make stock investment decisions both in the Australian market and via international bourses.

“SMSF trustees are the fastest growing sector of the Skaffold client bases,” he said.

“As a rule SMSF investors tend to be active investors and at the forefront of seeking out tools to assist with their investment decisions.

“It is estimated that on average, SMSFs now have 45 percent of assets in direct shares, up from around 35 percent in 2007. This compares with non-SMSF investors who typically hold less in direct shares, due in part to holdings in managed products

“Additionally, Skaffold members with SMSFs are three times more likely research stocks in offshore exchanges than members without an SMSF, as indicated by the take up of Skaffold’s Global product.”

SKaffold Global provides analyses of stocks on exchanges in the US, UK, Europe, Hong Kong, Canada, Switzerland and Singapore. SMSF investors are around three times more likely to subscribe to the global service than non-SMSF investors.

“We would expect SMSF interest in offshore markets to continue on an upward trend, as data out of major international economies show improvement. There’s also likely to be slipstream effect with non-SMSF investors following suit,” said Mr Batchelor.

Skaffold also revealed that Flight Centre (FLT) remains the top stock of members with SMSF. FLT featured prominently in the financial press recently, announcing a 23% increase in net profit and 28% increase dividend over the same period last year, with the shares closing on a record high of $48.41 on the day of the announcement (27/8/13).

Interestingly there was a high degree of agreement between members with SMSFs and those without when it came to Top 10 ‘Liked’ Stocks by the respective groups. Both had the same six stocks on the top of their ‘Liked’ list, namely:

• Flight Centre (FLT),
• Cedar Woods Properties (CWP),
• Forge (FGE),
• JB Hi Fi (JBH),
• Cordan (CDA), and
• ARB Corp (ARP).

Leighton (LEI) and Newcrest Mining (NCM) were the two stocks common to both groups ‘Top 10 Most Disliked Stocks’.

There was also consistency in the most popular overseas markets by both groups with the USA and Hong Kong rated #1 and #2 respectively by both groups.

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