In his yearly market commentary making predictions for the year ahead, Mr Prendeville, a business broker and M&A consultant at Forte Asset Solutions, predicted that auditors may increasingly be feeling the pressure.
“Accountants need to and will move to protect their participation in the growing SMSF sector,” Mr Prendeville said.
“The pricing of SMSF audits (average $3,000) is under threat [from] technology or product provider subsidised offers.
“For client and revenue retention they will be pushed into acquisition or merger activity. There were significant joint ventures entered into in 2013, but there are also many who are unsatisfied by the outsourcing solution and will seek to bring the advice service in-house.”
The business broker anticipated that as a result, accountants are likely to be on the lookout for attractive business acquisitions in months ahead in order to “protect and grow their SMSF offering”.
Mr Prendeville also reflected that while industry super funds are growing in terms of membership, they are losing funds under management – “primarily to the SMSF market”.
“Industry funds have been attracting experienced management over the years and they recognise that there is a significant need and opportunity to have a meaningful presence in the advice market.”
$3000 for the average audit fee? Surely you have to be joking!!
I think the author was referring to the whole package. Administration tax return and audit.
We are currently charging 270 + gst for an audit. A little extra if you have property.
FYI worth a 5 minute read
Our actual 2012FY audit fee was about $440 incl GST
However, the Actuarial Certificate was another $330 (where required)
I think you need an Actuarial Certificate
if the fund has a funding allocated pension like we do
Audits @ $3000, I think Mr Prendeville means the cost of preparing financial statements, SMSF annual returns.
The last published ATO statistics indicate that administration is around $3000 per fund; audit is approximately $600 per fund & investment management is approximately $5,000.
New technology solutions and offshoring/outsourcing services are certainly reducing fees across the board.
However the biggest risk is from vertically integrated financial service providers who plan to subsidise their sausage factory SMSF administration services by pushing product to the trustees.
Already one provider is listing an audit fee of $180. One would think that this fee is heavily subsidised by product offset. It would be difficult to imagine any audit being able to be conducted for such a low price.
Gee I am charging only around $600 for an audit without any LRBA. I must be an idiot.
I agree with other comments. My smsf has 4 members and includes numerous pensions and foreign currency trades and I paid $750 for my last audit
I wish I could get $1,000 per audit let alone $3,000.
I smell another beat up like how LRBA’s are going to destroy the SMSf sector as we know it.
$3,000 average audit fee!! I don’t think so; I pay
Wow – SMSf audits at an average of $3000 – if that’s what someone is charging its no surprise they are losing market share!
Not sure if the comments in this article are accurate. “The pricing of SMSF audits (average $3,000)..” is definitely incorrect, refer to recent publications from the ATO on average audit fees. In 2012 the average audit fee for those who completed only the SMSF audit was $530. Please let me know if I am interpreting this wrong? Thanks
The average price of an SMSF audit is not $3,000. I suggest that you do some research first & look at the published information on audit fees by the ATO & Cooper Review.
The average SMSF audit fee would be about $600, not $3,000.