A New South Wales-based financial planner has developed his own SMSF administration software aimed at providing advisers operating in the sector with a more cost-effective alternative to using a wrap platform.
The Bailey Roberts Group co-founder Ian Bailey said the web-based program, known as Pluto, can cut SMSF accounting time by up to half and allows all investments, including stocks and direct property, to be accounted for within the one system.
It also allows all client portfolios to be managed on a bulk basis, so the software can be used to buy and sell equities for a whole book of clients simultaneously, making it easy to rebalance portfolios, Bailey said.
"All audit information is stored online, the system saves about 50 per cent of the accounting time required to prepare superannuation accounts, and it is the only system that downloads every transaction. It even splits the GST component for SMSFs," he said.
"It stores all of the compliance information, automatically reconciles to clients' bank accounts and it can also be used to run model portfolios.
"We have actually decreased our staff since implementing our solution - the portfolio administration takes just one person to run in our firm. This means that our clients see the value proposition on all fees that they pay, not only that they can save 50 per cent of their fees and get a better product."
Bailey made the software as an alternative to using wrap platforms, which he described as being too expensive and ineffective.
"The trouble with a wrap platform is that all assets are held in a trust and the problem with that is if you have direct property in your SMSF, which 90 per cent of them do," he said.
Accountants, financial advisers and SMSF trustees can have a separate interface within Pluto.
Bailey plans to distribute the program to other dealer groups.
