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RETAIL REPORT: American Portfolios Launches a Unified Managed Account
Traders Magazine Online News, December 24, 2018
American Portfolios Financial Services, Inc. (AP), a privately-held, independent broker/dealer that services financial advisors across the country, recently launched its Unified Managed Account (UMA)—a private investment account that is professionally managed, allowing for a combination of all asset class strategies in one account; investments may include mutual funds, exchange traded funds, stocks and bonds. The UMA was formally announced at AP’s annual national conference, Connections 2018, during AP CEO Lon T. Dolber’s State of the Firm address, which spoke to the independent broker/dealer’s long-standing commitment to technology independence.
With AP’s UMA, investment professionals can build customized model portfolios for clients using third-party money managers in Advisor’s Solutions, an institutionally-managed program on American Portfolios’ advisory services platform through its Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), American Portfolios Advisors, Inc. (APA).
“Our Unified Managed Account is a game changer for American Portfolios,” states APA President Gary Gordon. “We have built a product the enables our advisors to offer best-in-breed institutional money managers in an easy-to-use, one-account solution. In building the technology platform to operate the UMA from the ground up, we are able to provide customization for each investment professional to truly offer their clients personal investment solutions.”
Allowing advisors to access everything at a very detailed level, AP’s UMA platform is unique in that it treats each sleeve in a model portfolio like a separate account; yet, from a custodial standpoint, it’s a single account. “While all UMAs allow investment professionals to act like an asset allocation manager—moving money between managers based on risk, profile modifications and clients’ needs changing over time—we went a step further by building in functionality that lets advisors manage a sleeve themselves, along with third-party money managers, to allocate a client’s entire portfolio within the same custodial account,” EVP of Technical Strategy Atindra Barua adds.
The UMA functions within the firm’s advisory technology platform, Portfolio Insight, taking instructions from the portfolio manager and/or system notifications upon an investment professional’s updates or changes to a model they created, executing trades through AP’s trade desk. A beneficial tool for both advisors and investors, AP’s UMA also: 1) acts as an overlay manager; 2) allows for DocuSign at account opening; 3) reduces paperwork with e-delivery functionality; 4) provides a simplified client portfolio review process; and 5) eliminates the need for multiple sets of statements and 1099 forms. All of these functions combined allow for a truly streamlined wealth management process.
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