SMSF administrator Xpress Super has experienced organic growth of 100 per cent during the 2017 financial year and chief executive Olivia Long is confident the trend will continue in the new year.
“We expect our growth to continue this financial year [2017/18] as we’re seeing strong demand from smaller accounting practices looking to outsource their SMSF clients given the increasing complexity and compliance around accounting for SMSFs,” Long noted.
She stressed the result should quash suggestions from certain quarters of the industry that SMSF administration was a sunset business.
Overall, the SuperGuardian administration group, of which Xpress Super is a part, enjoyed a 25 per cent expansion in its client base over 2016/17.
Long attributed some of that success to the decision of the group to acquire its own Australian financial services licence (AFSL).
“SuperGuardian, which boasts 15 years in the administrator market, is also benefiting from its decision to obtain its own AFSL following the removal of the accountants’ exemption,” she said.
“The timing couldn’t be better as we have been inundated with requests for strategic advice due to the superannuation changes.”
Use of technology was another strategy she nominated as a key driver of the group’s significant growth, an example being the app SuperGuardian made available to its users allowing them to access updates via mobile devices.
“The fact we have live data enables us to be proactive with our client advice, as any information we need to make regarding strategic recommendations is easily available. Certainly, it allowed us to handle the extensive changes to superannuation last year without a hiccup,” she said.
Further, she identified her organisation’s independence as another factor resulting in its expansion.
“Apart from our focus on technology, a key benefit of the SuperGuardian and Xpress Super administrative packages is the flexibility that comes from us being fully independent,” she said.
“We can make decisions quickly and implement change easily as we don’t have the bureaucracy of a large institution slowing us down.”
