New platform taps into IMA market
Published in the Independent Financial Adviser Magazine, May 2009
Investment company Wealth Within has launched a new platform that will make it easier for small to medium sized financial planning businesses to manage individual accounts.
The new platform, called Direct Equity Managed Account Service, provides investment management and administration under a single custody arrangement, while investors retain beneficial ownership of the underlying assets.
Since the onset of the financial crisis, there had been an increase in the number of clients switching from managed funds to direct equities, which meant there was going to be greater demand for financial planners to provide a sophisticated service that offered direct equities, Wealth Within said.
But so far, smaller businesses have only been able to provide individually-managed accounts to a limited number of wealthy people. The new product enables financial planners and brokers to administer an unlimited number of client investment portfolios, and the system also integrates with Iress's VisiPlan and Xplan systems.
Wealth Within is also working with a major Australian institution to bring non-recourse loans to market by July 2009.
The system's main point of difference to existing platforms is that each portfolio is customised to identify the best performing opportunities at the time the client invests, Wealth Within chief analyst Dale Gillham said.
"This is based on our company's philosophy, which combines timing the market with time in the market, that seeks to maximise the return on the client's investments," Gillham said.
