The average self managed super fund (SMSF) posted a gross loss of more than 11 per cent in the twelve months to June last year, beating the S&P/ASX 100 over the same period, according to new research.

Using Praemium data which contained around 4,500 funds, University of Adelaide professor, Ralf Zurbrugg, found SMSFs posted a gross loss of 11.6 per cent and a net loss of 13.7 per cent between July 2007 and June 2008.

Speaking at the SMSF Professionals' Association of Australia (SPAA) conference in Adelaide, he said SMSFs had performed "quite well" against the S&P/ASX100 and the ASX All Ordinaries indices which lost 12.8 per cent and 12.12 per cent respectively.

More than half those funds researched, or 2,254 SMSFs, performed better than the index while only 129 SMSFs, or almost three per cent, posted a 50 per cent loss.

Zurbrugg said SMSFs represented the only fund category to have increased in the past year, growing almost nine per cent to more than 754,000 funds over a year to June 2008.

"SMSFs have risen and that's not because SMSFs have performed well it's simply because there are more assets going into them," he said.

The research undertaken by Zurbrugg and SuperGuardian client manager, Monte Engler, found the average SMSF asset allocation was not all that dissimilar to the average retail default investment strategy.

The only noticeable difference Zurbrugg said was the average default investment strategy allocated 23 per cent towards international shares while the average SMSF exhibited no global share allocation and held more than 50 per cent in local shares.

The pair also analysed direct expenses SMSF trustees incur and found the average SMSF pays around $7,000 in expenses per annum. Of that figure, SMSF trustees paid $3,200 in accounting costs, $480 in auditing expenses and roughly $1,600 in advice fees on average per annum.