DIY Super For Dummies, 3rd Australian Edition

Chapter 6

How Much Does a SMSF Cost?

In This Chapter

Getting help from an administrator or accountant

Calculating the cost of your fund’s start-up

Estimating your fund’s ongoing expenses

Allowing for one-off fund costs

H ow much does it cost to run your DIY super fund? A glib answer may be: ‘How long is a piece of string?’ But a more precise answer is, ‘It depends!’ Seriously, how much your super fund costs to run depends on whether you appoint experts to help you, and how often you buy and sell investments.

In most cases, the more money you have in your super account, the cheaper it becomes to run your own DIY super fund. The reason that bigger means cheaper is that running a self-managed super fund (SMSF) involves some costs that are payable regardless of the size of your super account, such as fund establishment costs (including the trust deed), the ATO supervisory levy of $259, and the annual fund audit (although the audit often can cost more for larger SMSFs).

The costs involved ...