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Separately Managed Accounts

News

Wall Street Wirehouses Continue to Dominate SMA Market

Wall Street wirehouse bulge-bracket firms continue to top the list of sponsors of separately managed accounts for the second quarter of this year, according to a research report just issued by the Money Management Institute and Dover Financial Research.The report, whose findings were called preliminary, listed the top five sponsors of separately managed accounts as Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, BoA Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo, UBS Financial and Charles Schwab, respectively based on the value…

High-Net-Worth Head Count Up

The number of high-net-worth individuals in the top 10 U.S. metropolitan areas rose 17.5% in 2009, the highest growth rate in the last four years.

Doll, Pace Forecast Economic Recovery

The vice chairman at BlackRock said that though the economic recovery hit a stumbling block in the first half this year, he is confident it can overcome that obstacle by ....

TD Ameritrade, Vanguard Add Thesis Flexible Fund to Platform

Thesis Flexible is an alternative strategy fund that primarily uses hedge fund strategies and is already on the Fidelity and Schwab platforms.

Ranks of Wealthy Rebound

The 10 million high-net-worth individuals around the world own a total of $39 trillion in assets.

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Articles

Wirehouse Advisors Reject Separate Accounts

Wirehouse advisors are increasingly shunning separate account programs in which securities are directly held in favor of other types of managed accounts that use mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, annuities or other professionally managed securities because they find the latter gives them more flexibility to control their clients' assets, according to a new report from Cerulli Associates. The consulting firm found that separate account programs have shrunk at an annualized rate of over 16% over the last 2-1/2 years. Nearly every other type of managed account program grew over the same period. The securities are traded by a professional money manager.

Unified Accounts Offer Stock Trading Option

The addition of non-managed assets to a unified managed account could be the next step in the product's evolution, but some industry providers are skeptical whether the interest in stock-picking right now is enough for this enhancement to take off. BMO Nesbitt Burns, a wealth management unit of Bank of Montreal, has expanded its partnership with unified managed account provider Placemark Investments to add a client-directed investment account to BMO Nesbitt's UMA, the BMO Nesbitt Burns Architect Account.

Managed Futures Becoming Tougher Sell

In 2007, Philip Moses, a Raymond James adviser at First Federal Bank of Florida in Lake City, had a local physician as a client who wanted to diversify his $1.5 million portfolio. Moses, long an advocate of alternative investments, suggested a hefty 20% allocation to alternatives, including structured products, a multi-strategy hedge fund and a multi-advisor managed futures fund.

Non-Traditional ETFs Worry Regulators, Advisers

As exchange-traded funds continue to grow in scope and popularity, investment experts warn that some products, such as leveraged and inverse ETFs, may be too dangerous for all but the most experienced hands. 'People get lazy and they think an ETF is an ETF,' said Paul Schatz, president and CEO of the Woodbridge, Conn.-based registered investment advisor Heritage Capital LLC. 'There are inherent problems with every product, and some products have way too much firepower for the average person to use.'

Politics Could Slow Risk Control Overhaul

NEW YORK - Regulatory officials are pondering significant changes to the way the U.S. oversees financial markets in the wake of last year's credit crisis and the failure to prevent Bernard Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme, but lawmakers will have to make some hard choices before any real changes can happen. Financial industry experts blame these failures on the way regulatory agencies operate in silos and fail to share vital information.

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