Accountants' SMSF burden benefits outsourcing business
Some accountants and administrators will struggle to manage continuing SMSF growth and increased compliance obligations, which will lead to an increase in business process outsourcing, according to Sundaram global head of business development Harish Rao.
Rao expects self-managed super fund (SMSF) growth to propel Sundaram Business Services' SMSF processing from 6000 SMSFs in 2012 to 10,000 in 2013.
The company said it expected the sector to continue to grow in line with the growth experienced in 2012, bolstering Sundaram's plans to be processing 20,000 SMSFs within four years.
"In some cases the massive growth in SMSF work is diverting accounting firms from high-end accounting.
"The sector as a whole has grown by around a third in just four years, while some firms have seen their SMSFs grow even more," he said.
Rao said the company had a strong presence in Sydney and Melbourne, and its current scale allowed it to service firms of varying sizes. It had experienced growing demand in Perth and Adelaide and regional areas, he said.
"There is no doubt that some accounting firms and administrators are experiencing real challenges managing this growth boom and will benefit from the scalable back office that our services provide.
"Since we now have scale we believe that we can assist firms of different sizes: from large wealth management companies to small accounting firms," he said.
In December, the ATO reported the SMSF sector had grown by almost a third since 2008 to $440 billion in assets and 480,000 funds.
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