“There’s one system and everyone is working with one set of data, they all have access – unlike where we are today where it’s still a very fragmented industry where accountants are probably using a different system to advisers and the information exchange is very poor,” Mr Lawrenson said.

BT said it plans to leverage the 127,000 SMSF trustees currently using its existing investment platforms.

While BT intends to introduce the operating system across its entire customer base, not just SMSF trustees, the SMSF modules of the system will enable practitioners and their trustees to establish an SMSF, buy and sell equities and other types of investments, track the performance of investments, assist with the admininstration of the fund and allow documents to be stored ready for the audit of the fund.

BT general manager of platforms and operations John Shuttleworth estimates that it will only take a practitioner and client around 10 to 15 minutes to set up an SMSF with BT Panorama, in terms of filling out the initial documentation via the platform.

“There are certain things around the ATO approval that still need to be completed, but in terms of setting up the fund, the process of entering all the data is around a 10- to 15-minute process – there are natural lead times with the processes conducted by the ATO however,” said Mr Shuttleworth.

“The ATO can still take 28 days to approve the set-up of the fund.”

Mr Lawrenson said the efficiency of the system will come from not having to go to multiple places and use multiple log-ins.

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