Around 122 or 25 per cent, on the other hand, did work for firms that offshored at least some of their work.

Only 17 respondents or 3.46 per cent of respondents said their firm was planning to start offshoring work within the next 12 months.

Intello executive director Kris Kitto said the results probably reflect the fact that a lot of firms haven’t consciously thought about offshoring services, as it hasn’t been necessary.

“They haven’t made a conscious choice not to outsource, it’s just never been a thing they really needed to do," he said.

“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of downwards pressure on fees and I think that’s because of the continued complexity and changes with the legislation. The perception from clients or trustees is that ‘this is very complicated, I’m happy that I’ve got my accountant there or my administrator or my adviser to help me with it so that I don’t need to know all the nitty gritty of it’.

"Outsourcing or offshoring, or utilising technology, he said, also requires change and an “investment of time and resources to re-engineer old processes,” Mr Kitto added.