Krystine Lumanta interviewed David Carter, CEO of Odyssey Resources, for SelfManagedSuper Magazine.
“The pressures of information delivery, accessibility and efficiency are being equally felt in the administration and audit sectors servicing SMSFs. While there are some expectations for price cuts this year, Krystine Lumanta is told the industry must address a value awareness issue in order to agree on what is an acceptable price range.”
Cloud technology as well as overseas outsourcing are two key factors that will help reducing costs of SMSF administration and audit.
However, David Carter believes the costs will not come down in SMSF administration at this point in time. “There are not enough people willing to compromise the work and compliance,” he says.
“Also, accountants are denying that anybody can do anything cheaply, so, for example, anything under $400 means the work isn’t being done properly so we’re seeing some automation with a lot of work being sent overseas.”
He believes the quality of work produced by Vietnam-based Odyssey and other overseas providers is significantly better than what accountants are able to do in-house due to a lack of SMSF expertise; therefore overseas outsourcing becomes a better and cheaper option. “I’d give it one to two years for the major changes [to play out], but I think they’re already happening in terms of other compliance work going online,” he says, adding that super funds have been slower in response to the change.
“This is a relatively unregulated area at this point in time, so it’s important for people considering these services to do an appropriate due diligence on who they’re doing business with. You’ve got to know where your information is going, who’s doing the work and if something falls over, that the work can still be done and also that there isn’t any loss of data.”
He says Odyssey holds competence with Australians working in Vietnam, including himself, and he hopes to continue to promote good standards in the industry.
To read the article in its entirety, please click here: SMSMagazine – Admin zero: How low can you go?
