It's interesting to look at the types of investments that other Australian investors own. It could be very informative to see what the most widely held ASX shares are in self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs).
SMSF investors have more flexibility than other superannuation investors about where to put their money. ASX shares have the biggest allocation, followed by owned property, cash and term deposits, managed funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), unlisted trusts, 'other', international shares and finally debt securities.
Let's see which ASX shares are the most popular within SMSF portfolios.
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The most popular ASX shares
SMSF cloud accounting software provider Class recently released its 2026 annual benchmark report, which gave a lot of insights into the SMSF landscape. Class is owned by Hub24 Ltd (ASX: HUB).
At 30 June 2026, there were 12 ASX shares that were held in at least 20% of SMSF portfolios:
- BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) – 46.6% of all SMSF portfolios
- Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS) – 37.2%
- National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) – 34.4%
- Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) – 34.1%
- ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: ANZ) – 34.1%
- Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) – 31.9%
- CSL Ltd (ASX: CSL) – 31.4%
- Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS) – 31.4%
- Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) – 29.4%
- Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) – 29.5%
- Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) – 24.1%
- Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO) – 21.8%
It makes sense that these ASX shares have been chosen by SMSF investors. Almost all of them have a solid dividend yield. Passive income may be exactly what investors in retirement are looking for.
I think it's interesting that BHP and Woodside appear in the most portfolios. But it's also intriguing that NAB, Westpac and ANZ all feature in more portfolios than CBA. Commonwealth Bank also has the lowest dividend yield of the big four banks.
However, while they are in more portfolios, things look different when looking at which ASX shares have the most overall SMSF dollars invested in them.
According to Class data, order of most dollars allocated to ASX shares (with a weighting of more than 2%):
- CBA – 5.9%
- BHP – 5.5%
- Westpac – 3.6%
- NAB – 3.4%
- ANZ – 3.2%
- Wesfarmers – 3.2%
- Macquarie – 3.1%
- Telstra – 2%
ASX bank shares still have a very large place in SMSF portfolios, though BHP has significant SMSF dollars invested in it too.
What about exchange-traded funds (ETFs)?
ETFs are becoming increasingly popular investors as a way to gain exposure to certain sectors or geographies for a low cost.
According to the Class SMSF benchmark report, 35.5% of SMSFs now own at least one ETF, though they only account for a 7.2% allocation of overall SMSF dollars.
The ASX ETFs that are the most widely held include:
- Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (ASX: VAS)
- iShares S&P 500 ETF (ASX: IVV)
- VanEck MSCI International Quality ETF (ASX: QUAL)
- Vanguard Msci Index International Shares ETF (ASX: VGS)
- Vanguard All-World ex-US Shares Index ETF (ASX: VEU)
- Betashares Nasdaq 100 ETF (ASX: NDQ)
If SMSF investors use a mix of investments, they can build an ASX share portfolio that delivers strong returns and diversification.
