Superannuation and compliance software provider BGL Corporate Solutions is planning to expand the number of firms its clients can use to obtain an actuarial certificate.
BGL customers will be able to obtain online actuarial certificates from Bendzulla Actuarial later this month and Heffron in September.
"We want our clients to have a choice of actuaries rather than limiting the service to just one actuary," BGL managing director Ron Lesh said.
The ability to obtain online actuarial certificates via integrated information from BGL's Simple Fund application was made available to clients in May this year through the organisation's current actuarial partners Act2 Solutions and Cumpston Sarjeant.
Since launching this service to its self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) adviser clients, BGL has prepared in excess of 300 actuarial certificates.
"Our clients have already saved hundreds of hours of data entry by using the process," Lesh said.
"In the past, to prepare an actuarial certificate, clients would need to go to the actuaries website, download the actuary's spreadsheet, input details of contributions, transfers in and out, pensions and other benefits paid during the year and then submit the spreadsheet to the actuary so they can prepare the certificate. To input the data alone would often take more than an hour," he explained.
SMSF trustees with a pension in place often require actuarial certificates to determine the proportion of the fund's income that is tax exempt.
Relevant transactions are automatically identified by BGL Simple Fund and the exempt income portion is then subsequently calculated and put into the actuarial certificate with supporting information for the actuary's review.
Once the actuary has checked the information, the client is notified the actuarial certificate is available. This process can be completed in a few minutes.
