New customised investment platform launched

Boutique investment manager Wealth Within has created what it calls a ‘revolutionary’ platform it said would enable retail investors to tap into individually managed accounts (IMAs).

Wealth Within chief analyst Dale Gillham said that many unitised managed investment schemes or separately managed account services operate based on pre-existing model portfolios. But this new platform allows investors to customise their own portfolios, Gillham said.

Gillham said this means investors are not forced into buying an existing and potentially “less relevant and less timely” portfolio.

The group said it believes there has been an increase in the number of clients switching from managed funds into direct equities arrangements. This will lead to greater demand for financial planners to provide services in this area.

Furthermore, Gillham said many financial planners are seeing managed accounts as an opportunity to generate new revenue for their businesses. Financial planners will be able to brand the product.

The arrangement will allow planners to offer professional investment management and administration, while investors can retain beneficial ownership of the underlying assets.

“Managed accounts have become a mainstream product in recent years, but until now financial planners have only been able to offer their clients separately managed accounts (SMAs),” Gillham said.

Wealth Within marketing director Colin Owen said the IMA space has traditionally been dominated by the larger players who have economies of scale. He said that in the past, “brokers have only been able to service a limited number of IMA clients, usually around 100”.

But using the scalable technology of the platform, financial planners can service “an unlimited number of clients”, the group said.

The platform is integrated into VisiPlan and Xplan.