Ventura Investment Management Limited, a subsidiary of Centrepoint Alliance, has announced that its managed account portfolio service has reached its first $100 million in FUM from a standing start in April 2015.
Ventura Managing Director, Mat Walker, said: “Our Separately Managed Account (SMA) is designed to support advisers in providing high quality advice to their clients while driving lower costs for clients, along with practice efficiencies through reduced compliance burdens when managing client investment portfolios.
“We are delighted with the early response from both advisers and their clients with firms ranging from wealth specialists with more than $100m under advice to risk specialists who need an administratively easy investment solution for their wealth accumulation clients.
“Advisers are finding SMAs support the areas where they can add most value, developing high quality tailored client strategies, while being cost and feature competitive for investment execution, administration and management. This means they can invest more time in growing their business and engaging with clients.”
SMAs provide the benefits of direct investment, including lower costs, greater transparency, and streamlined administration when compared with other methods including managed funds, direct equities, model portfolios on platforms or managed discretionary accounts (MDAs).
It also leverages the global research capability of some of the world’s leading investment managers to build investment strategies that provide choice of investment styles and model profiles to suit a broad range of client needs and advice firm philosophies. This is supported by a suite of high quality support tools and collateral for engaging clients.
Mr. Walker explained, “Given the concept was relatively new in Australia compared to in the US where advisers have rapidly adopted SMAs as the preferred investment solution, we started with a soft launch last year so we could focus on adviser education and practice integration, to ensure the benefits are tangible and scalable.
“With the lines becoming blurred for some institutions about whether they are supporting high quality advice or direct to consumer strategies, we believe advisers can take comfort in our approach of supporting them to provide client-focused advice and access to world-class investment solutions while reaping the benefits of greater efficiency in their firm.”
