While most advisers attend to the investment needs of a client’s SMSF, only a few remain involved in the administration of their client’s SMSF.
Without full visibility into SMSF accounting processes however, clients may be paying excess costs or missing opportunities for timely advice and the benefits therein.
Many advisers don’t believe they have the skills, the time or qualifications to remain involved in the administration of their client’s SMSF. But not only is it important for advisers to do so to maintain a central role across all aspects of their client’s financial status, but there are significant mutual benefits for the adviser and client, alike. Here we quickly cover the top three.
1. Zero information gaps.
How many times has a client asked you about their SMSF and you have no idea because the administration of their fund has been managed by an external accountant?
Maintaining visibility into your client’s accounts throughout the financial year – not just at the EOFY- is important to optimise your client’s financial position and your ability to respond to their questions or need for advice; this is even more relevant today with total superannuation balance caps to consider.
2. Reduced Costs.
The total cost of running a SMSF is an issue recently targeted by ASIC. In some instances, annual SMSF administration and audit cost can exceed $5,000. Whilst this may be justified on very large and complex funds, in many cases, an adviser can achieve a significant reduction of fees for the client.
This can be done in two ways:
- Partner with a wholesale SMSF provider who can wrap admin and audit costs into one monthly fee. Working with a B2B specialist in SMSF can simultaneously save your client several thousand dollars each year whilst also affording you complete transparency over the client’s SMSF account. If you consolidate all SMSF client accounts with a single B2B provider, this also streamlines involvement to a single partner, a single process and sometimes a single portal too, rather than working with different accountants and their selected systems.
- Ensure that the SMSF investments (besides property) are all data fed. This not only speeds up the whole administration process but can also provide a substantial discount on their total fees.
3. Quality of Care
SMSF administration often falls into the domain of the client’s personal accountant by default. As a client’s needs shift from active investments and interests such as a business to focus only their SMSF or annual tax return however, the relationship between the client and accountant also changes.
As the volume and complexity of the work being completed by the accountant is reduced, the client’s priority is also diminished. By switching to a dedicated SMSF accountant or admin provider, it’s likely the client will not only benefit from paying a substantially lower fee but also gain access to timelier and potentially better-quality specialist SMSF advice.
For those advisers seeking to maintain visibility and involvement in the SMSF accounting and auditing processes in the interest of your client, it’s worth considering a B2B SMSF Partner like Intello. This can not only help you to maintain involvement in all aspects of your client’s financial world, but drastically streamline costs and time required to keep abreast of each client’s SMSF accounting a single partner portal and partner.
Contact Jamie to find out more, or download Intello’s most popular pricing packages from here (click Our Fees).