esuperfund - is it good? or is it a dud?, page-7

Free will, I agree with most of what you have posted above. There are certainly cases for NOT having a SMSF especially with smaller amounts.

However, I must contest the following:

If you have $1m in super - a retail fund at 2% could cost you $20,000 a year, and as often as not they perform below the index........ Esuperfund will cost you $599 a year. You can also get a better tax outcome by reducing the turnover of your holdings compared to a retail fund where they are often buying and selling

I would think that you would be a mug to have $1m in a retail fund. Many switch to a 'wholesale' platform before then and could be paying well under 1%, even less if they own direct shares (an option you rightly pointed out). I find this a constant irrational comparison here between public offer and self managed super funds.

It's hard to compare costs without taking account of your own time and the 'opportunity costs' of not taking investment actions. Unfortunately, most smsf's don't accurately track their total returns, let alone compare them to a similar (on a risk based comparison) 'public offer' fund as they don't want to know if they have 'done it better myself'.

Not having a go, more of a general point to other would-be smsf'ers. Do your homework before AND after you set one up.

PS: many funds do actually beat the index on average and can be an easy way to access specialised funds that can often do better eg resource, asia or smaller company funds (not a recommendation).

Cheers to all in super