Funds under management (FUM) in managed accounts remained steady for the first six months of 2020 and stood at $79.91 billion at the end of June, representing only a modest increase of $0.42 billion, according to data.
This was compared with the $79.29 billion at the end of December 2019, data from the Institute of Managed Account Professionals (IMAP) and Milliman found.
Further to that, the reported net funds inflow of $3.54 billion came from migrating existing clients from advice only services to managed accounts to provide a better outcome, according to advisers.
IMAP’s chair, Toby Potter, said that the fact that managed accounts delivered a positive inflow in such unprecedented and difficult times showed their growing importance in the eyes of investors, advisers and investment managers working together for the benefit of the end investor.
According to Victor Huang, Milliman’s head of capital markets – Australia, the ASX/ S&P 200 Accumulation Index’s fall of 10.42% during that time, compared with the 3.06% increase in the accumulation index for the prior six months, could explain why overall FUM did not move when flows were positive.
The managed discretionary accounts (MDA) category continued to grow and became the largest category, although a material amount of this was due to FUM moving between categories due to regulation change and some reclassification, Potter said.
