UMA platforms boost boutique advice offering

Unified managed account (UMA) platforms can help financial advisers dramatically improve their value propositions, according to the managing partner of a boutique private wealth management firm.

This is because a UMA doesn't lock clients into a set menu of products, but enables them to have all assets and liabilities in the one place, giving them a complete view of their total financial position, Perspective Group managing partner David Harvie said at an Institute of Managed Account Providers (IMAP) seminar hosted by OneVue in Melbourne.

"Traditional wraps and masterfunds are a bit like a Sizzler restaurant. You can only eat from their salad bar and their dessert bar. What's different about a UMA is you can put every investment a client has onto the one system that will analyse and generate reports across everything," he said.

Harvie said his business had tripled its assets under management using the OneVue UMA because clients wanted detailed reports on their overall financial position and the UMA could deliver it.

"They don't want you to just advise on their super anymore. They want you to advise on everything because you've got the system that can do it all, make sense of it all and report on it all. It's certainly improving our value proposition because we're making things clearer for clients and for us as well," he said.

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"For instance, come review time, we don't have to pull information together from multiple structures on numerous platforms and try to make sense of it to the client through confusing spreadsheets," Harvie said.

The UMA also helps from a referral perspective as it allows clients' accountants and other third parties access to reports, he added.