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Overview
Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs) in AdviserLogic provide a flexible way to manage and present client investments. SMAs can be displayed either as a consolidated portfolio or broken down into underlying holdings, helping you tailor advice and reporting to client needs.
AdviserLogic integrates SMA data from supported platforms and enables their use across key areas such as Assets, Digital Advice scenarios, and advice documents. This flexibility allows you to streamline portfolio analysis while maintaining access to detailed investment information when required.
SMA Availability in AdviserLogic
The availability of Separately Managed Accounts (SMA's)within AdviserLogic is determined by several factors.
Confidentiality: Model managers may be reluctant to share data due to confidentiality concerns. They may consider their data to be a proprietary asset that provides them with a competitive advantage. Sharing data could potentially harm their business by revealing information about their investment strategies and techniques. This is especially true of private models that are not available for distribution to a wider audience.
Compliance: SMA providers are subject to various regulatory requirements, and they must comply with laws and regulations that govern the collection, use, and sharing of data, especially around private models. These regulations can be complex, and SMA providers may be hesitant to share data out of fear of violating these rules.
Cost: Collecting, analysing, and sharing data can be an expensive process, especially for smaller SMA providers.
Datafeed Availability: The availability of SMAs within the datafeeds is determined by the Platform provider. The Platform provider manages the datafeeds and decides which SMAs are included and accessible within their system. As an adviser or user of AdviserLogic, you are limited to the datafed SMAs made available by the Platform provider.
Example: No existing SMAs are currently available on the CFS or AMP platform, however, they are for BT and Hub24.
What is Morningstar Doing to Improve Coverage?
Our Data collection team is continuously collaborating with the model managers to ensure efficient and timely information transmission. Additionally, we leverage our industry relationships and partnerships with underlying platforms to encourage model managers to share information through Morningstar and across our diverse product range.
We are also currently working on a project to expand the Platform level Managed Account database, working closely with the top Investment platforms in the industry
Add SMA’s to Fact Find
Non Datafed SMA’s
When datafed SMAs are unavailable, there are alternative methods to input their investments into the fact find. These methods ensure that the client's complete investment picture is captured accurately:
| Add all the underlying investments within the SMA as underlying investments within the SMA. This can be time-consuming and is only recommended for SMAs that are infrequently used. |
Once the custom product is set up it will show as an option in the drop-down within the Superannuation tab. This method is recommended for advisers who extensively use the same SMA’s |
📌Note
This option will only show the asset allocation but not the underlying investments within Digital Advice Scenarios.
Datafed SMA's
AdviserLogic currently receives SMA datafeeds from the following providers:
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If the platform provider is not included above e.g., CFS/MyNorth. The underlying investments will not group the SMAs within Assets/Liabilities.
Caveats
There are several caveats to consider when deciding which SMA route to take within AdviserLogic.
| Will only show the overall value – will not show buy/sell, will not show underlying options, needs to be regularly maintained to accommodate market fluctuations fees, and costs as well as investment changes within the SMA, only investment changes that can be updated are overall asset allocations. |
| Unavailable to add as an underlying investment in Fact Find, Digital Advice will return the investment fees & costs for the underlying investments and not for the SMA, which may be different, Custom ICR will not be applied – needs to be reviewed and modified when recommending |
Quick Reference Guide
New/Existing SMA | Existing Datafeed | SMA provider available in AdviserLogic Digital Advice SMA setup | Process |
New | Not relevant (Yes & No) | Yes | |
New | Not relevant (Yes & No) | No | |
Existing | Yes | Yes | |
Existing | Yes | No | |
Existing | No | No |
Scenario 1a
If the SMA manager sends the data to Morningstar, it is likely that the SMA will be available via the Morningstar datafeed in the Digital Advice platform. In this case, you can recommend an SMA in the client's advice by accessing the SMA information through the available datafeed.
To recommend an SMA in the client's advice, follow the SMA Setup instructions.
Scenario 1b
If the SMA Manager is not available, you have two recommended options for recommending the portfolio:
| This option is suitable for SMAs with a considerable number of underlying investments. By recommending the portfolio as a Custom Product, it becomes simpler to maintain and manage. Additionally, it will be displayed as a grouped option, providing a clear overview of the portfolio within the Digital Advice platform. |
| This option is recommended when you wish to have a comprehensive breakdown of all fees associated with each underlying investment, including buy and sell costs. It is particularly useful when the SMA is privately held by the Licensee, who has control over the underlying investments, asset allocation, and ICRs. |
Scenario 2
Where SMA Manager is included within SMA setup in Digital Advice
Scenario 3
Where the SMA Manager is not included within SMA setup in Digital Advice
If the SMA managers are not listed as one of the SMA providers in the Digital Advice platform, but the datafeed provider groups the SMAs and provides the required information, you can still access the SMA grouping and fees within the system.
In Digital Advice, when you navigate to the client's existing portfolio that includes Datafed SMAs, you can select the vertical ellipsis (three dots) menu associated with the SMA in question. By selecting this menu, you will be able to view the existing SMA fees.
If the SMA is included in the available datafeeds - The fees will be sourced from the datafeed itself, ensuring that you have accurate and up-to-date information about the fees associated with the SMA. This information will be displayed within the Digital Advice platform, regardless of whether the SMA was initially available on the SMA Setup page.
By accessing the SMA grouping and fee information through the vertical ellipsis menu, you can review and consider these details when making changes to the client's portfolio. This allows you to consider the fees associated with the SMAs and provide appropriate recommendations to the client.
📌Note
The SMA grouping and fee will show regardless of whether the SMA was available on the SMA Setup page.
Scenario 4
Licensee/Practice owned SMA within Digital Advice and is one of the available datafeed providers.
If the Licensee/practice branded SMAs are not shown in the SMA setup, it means that they are not available as one of the datafeed providers in the system. However, if the SMAs are listed under one of the available datafeed providers, it is possible to edit the fees in the Digital Advice scenario.
When setting up the Investment Portfolio stage in Digital Advice, there will be a pop-up that appears in the initial instance, specifically for the SMA Fees and costs of the SMA. This allows you to enter and edit the fees associated with the Licensee/practice branded SMAs within the Digital Advice scenario.
By accessing this pop-up and adjusting the fees, you can accurately reflect the costs and fees associated with the Licensee/practice branded SMAs in the Digital Advice scenario. This ensures that the advice provided to the client is aligned with the actual fees and costs of their chosen SMA.
Once the fees are set up within the scenario, the pop-up will not appear again. The fees entered may be checked via the vertical ellipsis (three dots) menu.
If you are recommending into a practice SMA, without the existing SMA within the client's portfolio. The workaround is to add the practice SMA as a Custom Product.
Scenario 5
The client’s portfolio is not one of our SMA datafeed providers, the client has an existing SMA
If the client has an existing Separately Managed Account (SMA) but there is no SMA datafeed available, and the investment datafeed (such as CFS and MyNorth) shows all the underlying investments within the SMA, there are certain limitations in grouping the SMA in Digital Advice or the Advice Document.
However, there is an alternative process available.
The alternative process in Digital Advice is to recommend changes to the existing SMA as a Model Portfolio. Instead of directly grouping the SMA in Digital Advice or the Advice Document, you can create a model portfolio that reflects the desired changes to the client's existing SMA. The model portfolio can include the recommended investments and allocations based on the client's objectives, risk tolerance, and other factors.
Recommended SMA's Within the Advice Document
About you
Strategy Pages
Product replacement
Appendices
Netwealth SMA Limitations in Digital Advice
If there is only one SMA within the client portfolio, users will need to manually edit the Investment Cost Ratio (ICR) for that SMA in each Digital Advice scenario. This means that the ICR will have to be adjusted individually for each scenario, which can be time-consuming and prone to errors.
On the other hand, if there are two SMAs within the client portfolio, the investments will be grouped together into a single entity. This grouping simplifies the process as users can manage and edit the ICR for the entire group rather than individual SMAs. However, when dealing with multiple clients, this approach can present challenges, as each client may have different SMAs and investment groupings.
Furthermore, in the template, a generic SMA description is displayed. This generic description may not accurately represent the specific details and characteristics of the SMAs within the client portfolio. It is important to ensure that the information presented in the template is tailored to accurately reflect the attributes of each SMA in the client's portfolio.
When dealing with these limitations and challenges, it may be necessary to consider customizations or workarounds to ensure accurate representation of the SMAs and their associated details within the Digital Advice platform. This could involve manual adjustments, additional documentation, or communication with the SMA providers to obtain the necessary information for each scenario and client.
Troubleshoot Issues
A common issue we see is advisers trying to search for SMA's in AdviserLogic via the Managed Funds search in assets.
Please follow the cheat sheet in this article to learn and how to use and access SMA's