Straw poll reveals preference for onshore services
A straw poll has revealed that the majority of SMSF firms complete all of their work in Australia and that few firms plan to start offshoring processes in the short term.
A straw poll conducted by SMSF Adviser indicated that out of the total 491 respondents, 352 respondents or 72 per cent worked for a firm that did not send any work abroad.
Around 122 or 25 per cent, on the other hand, did work for firms that offshored at least some of their work.
Only 17 respondents or 3.46 per cent of respondents said their firm was planning to start offshoring work within the next 12 months.
Intello executive director Kris Kitto said the results probably reflect the fact that a lot of firms haven’t consciously thought about offshoring services, as it hasn’t been necessary.
“They haven’t made a conscious choice not to outsource, it’s just never been a thing they really needed to do," he said.
“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of downwards pressure on fees and I think that’s because of the continued complexity and changes with the legislation. The perception from clients or trustees is that ‘this is very complicated, I’m happy that I’ve got my accountant there or my administrator or my adviser to help me with it so that I don’t need to know all the nitty gritty of it’.
"Outsourcing or offshoring, or utilising technology, he said, also requires change and an “investment of time and resources to re-engineer old processes,” Mr Kitto added.
Miranda Brownlee
Miranda Brownlee is the deputy editor of SMSF Adviser, which is the leading source of news, strategy and educational content for professionals working in the SMSF sector.
Since joining the team in 2014, Miranda has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest superannuation stories in Australia, and has reported extensively on technical strategy and legislative updates.
Miranda also has broad business and financial services reporting experience, having written for titles including Investor Daily, ifa and Accountants Daily.
