No Silver Bullet Yet for SMA Platforms

NEW YORK – No software platform for separately managed accounts is without its limitations, speakers said this week at The Money Management Institute’s fall conference here.

None can handle the multiple products that advisers and their clients want to tether, and all use different interfaces, forcing many of the various parties that support managed accounts to communicate with one another via the archaic method of paper-based faxes, messengers and mail.

And while some platforms may be able to benchmark holdings against indexes, they might do a poor job of reconciling trades. Some may do a terrific job at minimizing taxes but fail to handle multiple currencies. Still others may make it easy for the legal team to do due diligence but be unable to take standing orders. And so it goes.

"But it’s only a matter of time before someone gets it right with a complete end-to-end solution," said Bob Hollinger, a partner with Barrington Partners . "No total solution exists," agreed Chuck Widger, CEO and president of Brinker Capital of King of Prussia, Pa., who chaired a session on next-generation managed account platforms that itemized dozens of functions the industry needs. "Outsourcing firms and technology vendors are addressing the need for specialization, efficiency, better margins and improved functionality," Widger said. But they have a long way to go.

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Money Management Executive
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