Online administrator Xpress Super cuts SMSF costs

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Price competition among administrators of self-managed superannuation funds continues to intensify, with Adelaide-based SuperGuardian launching a new cut-price service.

Run by subsidiary Xpress Super, which gives its name to the new service, it is bidding for business by offering to set up your SMSF for free and waiving the standard annual fee of $799 for the first year.

The main functions of Xpress Super include assisting SMSFs to comply with the rules and preparing and lodging all the required reporting documents at the end of the financial year.

xpress super

It keeps costs down by managing this electronically, a process underpinned by the fact it requires all SMSFs to use a Commonwealth Bank Accelerator Cash Account as their transaction account and CommSec as their broker.

Standardisation also extends to term deposits, as these need to be organised through Australian Money Market using its Term Deposit Interest Rate Maximiser. As well, life and disability insurance for SMSF members is offered only through AIA Australia.

One of Xpress Super's strongest features appears to be its ability to deliver high-level, daily online SMSF reporting by using the cloud-based administration software offered by Class Financial Systems.

This is the same software that backs SuperGuardian's premium administration service as well as that of a number of other well-known SMSF service providers.

Money verdict

Xpress Super is a cheap online administration service that benefits from piggybacking off SuperGuardian's established online SMSF reporting service.

While it restricts the accounts and broker you can use, this is not unusual. For example, esuperfund does the same.

Xpress Super is definitely worth checking out but be warned that, if you use it and change your mind in the first two years, closing down the fund will trigger a $1498 exit fee.

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Peter Freeman is a former managing editor of The Australian Financial Review. He runs his own self-managed super fund.