Managed accounts future clear as industry heads past $40bn

Toby Potter has left his position as national manager of platform strategy and managed accounts with IOOF to concentrate on leading the Institute of Managed Account Professionals (IMAP) and developing the organisation to support a growing number of managed account providers.

The managed accounts market is set for a period of growth and development following a regulatory review of the sector by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), which Potter says will cement the managed account concept at the centre of how an increasing number of financial planners choose to implement investment solutions for clients.

“The regulatory changes will provide a significant fillip for managed accounts by making it clear that ASIC thinks they’re an acceptable vehicle for the delivery of advice,” Potter says.

“I think it’s clear that with the recent update of the regulatory regime, ASIC’s made it clear that managed accounts are now a mainstream part of retail financial services.

“IMAP’s role in that new clearer regulatory environment is to provide a forum for each of the types of organisations that are involved – [managed account] providers, investment managers, licensees and advisers – with a venue to come together and learn, discuss [and] share their experiences of managed accounts.”

Potter says ASIC’s regulatory review has made it clear that managed accounts can be operated in “a variety of modes”.

“And it’s the only class of financial services product that I am aware of which contains that level of variety embedded in regulation,” he says.

“To that extent it’s clearer. You can choose how you deliver your services. What I think remains unclear for individual advisers who’ve been using the limited MDA capability, which is going to be expunged over the next 24 months, is what the optimal choice for each organisation will turn out to be.”

IMAP will survey the size of the MDA market again next month, and Potter says he expects the market to have grown considerably – for a couple of reasons.

“In the research that we did for June 30, 2016, we identified over $30 billion of FUM in various types of managed account structure,” he says.

“I’m confident that we missed a number of particularly MDA providers from that study. When we repeat the study in December, by filling in those who were omitted, we’ll see that both organic growth and uncovering existing participants means the likely total FUM is in excess of $40 billion.”