Accountants want to grow their self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) client base by 35%, according to Investment Trends.
The research house’s latest SMSF accountant report found that while SMSF trustees already comprised 36% of accountants’ total client base, accountants estimated another one-in-eight clients were suitable for an SMSFs, and half of this cohort had expressed an interest in establishing one.
Investment Trends senior analyst, King Loong Choi, said: “Given the large pool of potential SMSFs, there is a clear opportunity for service providers to help accountants better serve this segment.
“To help educate clients and facilitate SMSF set up, accountants want to be better equipped to explain the suitability of SMSFs (52%), and the roles and responsibilities of trustees (49%).”
The report noted that the top challenges for accountants were regulatory related such as licensing restrictions on providing financial advice (49%), heightened regulation in setting up SMSFs (34%), and compliance obligations (31%).
“However, many accountants also face issues on the client-facing side, such as competitive pricing/fee recovery (38%) and attracting new SMSF clients (29%),” Choi said.
The report also found that BGL Simple Fund led satisfaction ratings for specialist software used to service SMSFs by accountants as 35% of accountants rated it as ‘very good’, ahead of Class Super (29%), and SuperMate (17%).
Comments
What a surprise - accountants want recession proof revenue as their small business clients drop off the face of a cliff. Good luck. We would wind up more SMSF’s than we setup I’d say, FASEA has made it very difficult to justify an SMSF unless the client really wants one. And those that really want one tend to want to shove a property in it, which I’m not that comfortable sticking my AFSL on the line to do.
I'd say it's not appropriate for a responsible professional to recommend or facilitate an SMSF just because a client really wants one. Doctors don't prescribe a certain type of drug just because a patient asks for it.
Thanks for the ethics lesson Dr FASEA. The clients who want an SMSF because do so as they have a specific purpose in mind, usually commercial property for their businesses. I hope one wouldn’t set it up to purchase a wrap IDPS with some managed funds and a CMT.
In other words, accountants want to abuse their position of trust by selling more inappropriate, inhouse product to unsuspecting consumers.
Just because accountants are "trusted" doesn't mean they are "trustworthy". The rampant proliferation of unnecessary SMSFs proves that.
Talk about conflicts of interest. Of course Accountants want to setup more SMSF.
The real story is BGL beating class in User Satisfaction 5 years running, I m selling my class shares
SMSFs will continue to be popular, just as they have for the past 30 years.
Not that these awards mean much however that's not actually true:
2019 Class
2018 BGL
2015-2017 Class
Reality is that they are both great products and suit different types of firms. BGL has definitely closed the gap the past couple of years.
SMSFs will hold firm just as they have for the past 30 years.
Not that these awards mean much however that's not actually true.
2019 - Class
2018 - BGL
2015-17 - Class
Reality is that they are both good offerings and suit different types of firms. BGL have definitely closed the gap the past couple of years though.
TV Fact Check - Class Investment trends Overall Satisfaction SMSF Software Winner
2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019 Check the 13 March 2020 Investor Report https://investors.class.com.au/investors/?page=asx-announcements
Right you are. My apologies, I thought from your comment you were suggesting that BGL was the winner for 5 years running.
"The real story is BGL beating class in User Satisfaction 5 years running, I m selling my class shares"
Again - both good offerings and both make life a hell of a lot easier for both SMSF Accountants and the firms that they work for to deliver a great experience to SMSF Trustees.
Will be interesting to see how both businesses continue to diversify their offerings beyond SMSFs to deliver more value to their respective clients.
Customer Satisfaction does matter, this is a trend shift, I'm am jumping off, been a great ride :)
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