Industry funds with balances above $250,000 first overtook SMSFs for satisfaction in the same category in November last year when SMSFs were rated 80.5 per cent for satisfaction while industry funds scored 81.3 per cent.

Roy Morgan Research industry communications director Norman Morris told SMSF Adviser the drop for SMSF satisfaction in the last two months of 2014 could be due to the fact SMSFs are more involved in the share market and pay closer attention to fluctuations.

“The share market dived a bit at the end of last year, so I expect SMSF satisfaction in terms of financial performance will increase again in January and February,” said Mr Morris.

“SMSFs also hold about a third of their assets in cash so deposit rates going down hasn’t helped returns either." 

The results showed SMSFs still scored the highest satisfaction for financial performance overall, however, with a rating of 76.6 per cent, compared to 59.2 per cent for industry funds and 56.5 per cent for retail funds.

Mr Morris argued the main reason behind the overall higher satisfaction for SMSFs was that “satisfaction rises with the amount held in super”.

“The logical extension of that is because SMSF balances are averaging about $1 million, satisfaction is higher,” said Mr Morris.