Setting up an SMSF in Australia typically costs between $1,500 and $3,500 through a professional provider – covering the trust deed (around $300-600), ASIC registration of a corporate trustee ($611 in 2025-26) and the establishment paperwork. Running the fund then costs most trustees $2,000-5,000 a year, made up of administration and accounting fees, the independent audit (median fee $550), the ATO supervisory levy of $259 and the ASIC annual review fee of $67 for a special purpose trustee company. New funds pay the supervisory levy twice in their first year ($518). Advice from a licensed financial adviser on whether an SMSF suits you is optional and separate, typically $3,300 to $6,600 for a Statement of Advice. Here is the full breakdown, line by line.
Last reviewed June 2026. ASIC fees are indexed each 1 July, so the 2025-26 figures quoted here will change slightly from 1 July 2026.
What You Pay to Establish an SMSF
An SMSF is a trust, so establishing one means creating a trust deed, appointing trustees, registering with the ATO and opening a bank account in the fund’s name. The costs fall into a small number of buckets.
| Establishment cost | Typical amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Trust deed | $300 – $600 | Professionally prepared deed from a specialist provider. Avoid generic templates – the deed governs everything the fund can do. |
| Corporate trustee – ASIC registration | $611 | ASIC fee to register a proprietary company (2025-26). One-off. |
| Corporate trustee – company constitution and setup | $200 – $600 | Documents for a sole purpose trustee company, usually bundled with the deed. |
| ATO registrations (ABN, TFN, regulated fund election) | Usually included | No ATO fee, but the registration must be done correctly – the ATO reviews new funds before they appear on Super Fund Lookup. |
| Statement of Advice from a licensed financial adviser | $3,300 – $6,600 | One-off. Not required by law, though strongly encouraged. Only a licensed adviser can tell you whether an SMSF suits you. |
| Typical all-in professional setup | $1,500 – $3,500 | Excludes financial advice, which a licensed adviser charges for separately. |
Two things worth knowing about these numbers. First, establishment costs are capital in nature, so the fund generally cannot deduct them against its income. Second, the corporate trustee is optional – members can act as individual trustees instead and save the company costs – but for most funds the company is worth it. A corporate trustee simplifies admin when members join or leave, keeps fund assets clearly separated, and if the ATO ever imposes administrative penalties they apply once to the company rather than once per individual trustee.
Advice and paperwork are two separate jobs, and the law treats them differently. Whether an SMSF suits you is a question for a licensed financial adviser, because recommending that you set one up, or roll your super into one, is personal financial product advice, and only someone who holds an Australian financial services licence, or is authorised under one, can give it. The adviser sets out the recommendation and the reasons for it in a Statement of Advice, which typically costs $3,300 to $6,600 as a one-off fee. You do not have to get one before setting up a fund, though we strongly encourage it. Accountants lost their exemption for this kind of advice in 2016, so Prime Partners can advise on the tax side of an SMSF and cannot tell you whether one is right for you. Preparing the deed, registering the trustee company and lodging the ATO registrations needs no licence once you have made the decision, and that is the part we handle, working alongside your financial adviser.
Individual vs Corporate Trustee: the Cost Difference
Individual trustees cost nothing to appoint, while a corporate trustee costs roughly $800-1,200 upfront (ASIC registration plus documents) and a small ongoing fee. The ongoing fee is the part people get wrong: a company that acts solely as an SMSF trustee qualifies as a special purpose company with ASIC, which cuts the annual review fee to $67 (2025-26) instead of the standard several hundred dollars. ASIC also lets you prepay 10 years of review fees at a discount – $463 in 2025-26. If your trustee company is paying the full annual review fee, check its special purpose status.
Ongoing Annual Costs of Running an SMSF
The establishment cost is a one-off. The numbers that actually determine whether an SMSF makes financial sense are the recurring ones.
| Annual cost | Typical amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Administration, accounts and annual return | $1,500 – $3,500+ | Financial statements, member statements, SMSF annual return. Higher for property, LRBAs or pension funds requiring actuarial certificates. |
| Independent audit | $350 – $900 | Required every year. The ATO’s statistics put the median audit fee at $550. See our guide to SMSF audit requirements. |
| ATO supervisory levy | $259 | Paid with the annual return. New funds pay $518 with their first return – the current year plus the next year in advance. |
| ASIC annual review fee (corporate trustee) | $67 | Special purpose company rate, 2025-26. |
| Investment, advice and insurance costs | Varies | Brokerage, platform fees, financial advice, life insurance premiums for members held through the fund. |
The ATO’s most recent statistical overview puts the median operating expense for an SMSF at $4,553 a year for 2023-24 (the average is higher, at $7,271, because very large funds skew it; counting investment, insurance and borrowing costs as well, median total expenses were $9,874). A straightforward fund with listed investments and a clean set of records sits comfortably below the median; funds holding property with borrowings sit above it.
The Break-Even Question: When Do the Costs Make Sense?
SMSF costs are mostly fixed – the audit, the levy and the accounting cost broadly the same whether the fund holds $150,000 or $1.5 million. An APRA-regulated fund charges mostly percentage-based fees instead. That single difference drives the break-even arithmetic:
- On a $100,000 balance, $3,000 of fixed annual costs is 3% – a serious drag that an industry fund (typically under 1%) beats easily.
- On a $400,000 balance, the same $3,000 is 0.75% – already competitive with most APRA fund fee structures.
- On $1 million+, fixed costs often work out cheaper than percentage fees, sometimes substantially.
Research by the University of Adelaide for the SMSF Association (2022) found SMSFs with balances of $200,000 or more achieved investment returns competitive with APRA-regulated funds, while Moneysmart warns that SMSFs can cost more than retail and industry funds and that trustees spend on average more than 8 hours a month running them. Cost is only one part of the decision – control, investment choice and responsibility matter too. We walk through the full comparison, including who should not have an SMSF, in SMSF vs industry fund: which is right for you?
Keeping SMSF Costs Predictable
The biggest cost variable is not the levy or the audit – it is what happens when the fund’s records are messy. Late lodgement triggers penalties, a fund whose annual return is more than two weeks overdue is flagged on Super Fund Lookup and cannot receive employer contributions or rollovers, and compliance breaches can cost tens of thousands in administrative penalties. Clean administration is the cheapest compliance strategy there is.
Prime Partners provides fixed-fee SMSF administration, accounting and tax services from our North Sydney and Orange offices – annual accounts, the SMSF annual return, audit coordination with an independent auditor, and trustee support throughout the year, with the fee agreed before the work starts. If you are weighing up whether an SMSF stacks up at your balance, or want your existing fund administered properly, talk to us. If your balance is heading towards $3 million, note that the new Division 296 tax applies from 1 July 2026.
