Brett Marsh

Proactive Portfolios and OneVue have launched a new range of model portfolios to include managed fund models.

Proactive has launched five new managed fund model portfolios that use a Managed Investment Scheme (MIS) structure which takes a model portfolio and turns it into a product for advisers to use. The unique structure also uses OneVue as a Responsible Entity.

The new Proactive managed fund model portfolios will help advisers implement client investment strategies by avoiding delays in times of financial market volatility. The range also expands Proactive’s existing range of ASX-listed multi-asset portfolios.

By using the new models, advisers can improve overall practice efficiency through reducing the number of advice documents needed for client investment strategy and the amount of manual processing needed for trades. This increases consistency and reduces practice risk.

The new managed account solutions are available through WealthPortal, using the OneVue LUMINOUS platform.
OneVue Head of Product Brett Marsh says: “Managed Accounts are becoming increasingly popular with advisers due to their efficiency and compliance benefits.

“Creating the model portfolios within an MIS results in robust portfolio implementation, coupled with administrative efficiencies. Advisers can follow a model portfolio of managed funds without the ongoing requirement to provide SOAs (Statement of Advice) or ROAs (Record of Advice) for changes within the models.

“The product structure acts as long-term protection from regulation, as it doesn’t include use of a limited MDA structure common among other platforms, which is currently under regulatory review,” said Brett Marsh.

Jaime Johns, National Manager Practice Development at Madison Financial Group, says an extensive choice of model portfolios is now available across the company’s listed and managed fund assets and investments, reducing administration for the adviser and compliance risk for the dealership. A win/win for clients, advisers and the licensee.

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Brett Marsh

SMSF investors continue to retreat from the volatile stock market, recording their lowest investment for five years in this asset class for the June quarter of this year.

According to new data released by OneVue, investment in listed shares by OneVue SMSF investors dropped to 19.23% in the June quarter, down nearly 10% from two years ago and more than 3% in the past year.
The listed shares category was 22.52% one year ago (June 2015 quarter) and much higher two years ago at 28.93% (June 2014 quarter).

SMSF investment in listed shares is now at the lowest level ever recorded by OneVue, which started keeping records of SMSF investment in June 2011. In that quarter five years ago, listed shares were the biggest asset class held by OneVue SMSF investors, at 29.5%.

“SMSF investors are continuing to react with caution to current volatile market conditions, by turning towards cash and term deposits and managed funds,” said OneVue Head of Product and Transactions, Brett Marsh.
Currently, SMSF funds command nearly one-third of Australia’s super pool, with a 29% share of the total and $590 billion in funds under management.

According to the OneVue data, SMSF investment in cash and term deposits rose to 21.07% for the June quarter – up from 18.83% one year ago (June 2015 quarter).

The Unitised Trusts (Managed Funds) category rose to 28.7%, up from 24.7% from a year ago (June 2015 quarter). This continues to be the dominant category for OneVue SMSF investors, attracting more investment than any other asset category.

Investment in Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs) held steady at about a quarter of the total OneVue SMSF investment pool, at 25.13% (compared to 24.7% June quarter 2015). Direct Property holdings stayed fairly steady at 8.61%, up from 7.43% in June 2015.

Advisers are continuing to access professional investment management through actively managed and passively managed trusts, in particular asset classes such as international, infrastructure and alternatives, said Mr Marsh.

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Brett Marsh

WealthPortal is proud to launch an expanded suite of Separately Managed Account (SMA) options from Proactive Portfolios.

Proactive has launched through WealthPortal’s five new MFM (Managed Fund Models) SMA model portfolios which are blended from a select group of Managed Funds and offer a range of risk profiles for advised clients. These models are also available through RetireSelect the Retail Superannuation offering.

The new Proactive MFM SMAs are an addition to existing Proactive Portfolios SMAs which invest into listed securities. The new Proactive MFM SMAs will help advisers implement client investment strategies by avoiding delays in times of financial market volatility.

The SMAs can also improve overall practice efficiency through reducing the number of advice documents needed for client investment strategy and the amount of manual processing needed for trades, thereby increasing consistency and reducing practice risk.

The new managed account solutions are available through the WealthPortal website and RetireSelect.

Jaime Johns, National Manager Practice Development at Madison Financial Group, says an extensive choice of model portfolios is now available across the company’s listed and managed fund assets and investments, reducing administration for the adviser and compliance risk for the dealership. A win/win for clients, advisers and the licensee.

OneVue Head of Product Brett Marsh says: “Managed Accounts are becoming increasingly popular with advisers due to their efficiency in implementation and compliance benefits, due to clients being actively managed within their asset allocation.

“At OneVue, we are proud to continue our relationship with the Madison Financial Group by delivering these new managed account solutions through WealthPortal.”

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Brett Marsh

A rapid increase in technologically-enabled innovation is changing the world at an accelerated rate and Australians cannot be left out of this exciting field of investment.

To enable Australians to access investment sectors not readily available locally, OneVue has forged an exclusive partnership with New York City-based investment manager, ARK Investment Management LLC (ARK). Ark was founded in 2014 by Catherine D. Wood following her 12-year tenure as Chief Investment Officer of Global Thematic Strategies at AllianceBernstein, where she managed over $5 billion in assets.

The new OneVue partnership enables Australian investors and advisers to access global equity portfolios focused solely on disruptive innovations with high growth potential.

Brett Marsh, Head of Product, said: “We wanted to offer something that genuinely gives domestic investors access to innovations and sectors that are making a difference across generations.”

ARK is a leading investment manager offering global thematic strategies that capitalise on investment opportunities created by disruptive innovation. ARK believes innovation is key to the long-term growth of company earnings, revenues and profits. By identifying and investing in public companies that are the leaders, enablers and beneficiaries of disruptive innovation, ARK’s strategies aim to deliver superior long-term capital appreciation and outperformance with low correlations to traditional investment strategies. ARK’s investment offerings currently include Industrial Innovation, Next Generation Internet, The Genomic Revolution, 3D Printing, Israel Innovative Technology, and an overall Disruptive Innovation Strategy.

“Innovation is changing the way we live and should be reflected in how we invest,” said Catherine D. Wood. “An acceleration in the pace of innovation makes it more challenging for traditional analysts to accurately assess industries and companies, and for benchmarks to adjust. Our strategy is to find and invest in the companies that are poised to transform economic sectors and the global economy.”

ARK has a unique research ecosystem that leverages multiple data sources. This ecosystem utilises ‘Theme Developers’ who challenge, validate and provide knowledgeable insights for ARK’s theme-based research. Theme Developers are thought leaders and experts who specialise in a research theme.

ARK’s portfolios are the latest international equity SMAs to be added to OneVue’s platform, which now offers more than 70 SMAs, as well as a large range of fast-growing model portfolios, including blended direct share and managed fund models.

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Brett Marsh

SMSF Investors are reacting with caution to current volatile market conditions by increasing their holdings in Cash and Term Deposits, according to new data released by OneVue.

Investment in Cash and Term Deposits rose by 2.7% to 19.9% in the March quarter of this year, compared to the December quarter of last year, according to trend statistics monitored in a quarterly survey of OneVue SMSF investors. It’s the biggest quarterly jump for this asset class in OneVue statistics since 2012 and reverses a declining trend in these asset classes for most quarters since then.

“The timing of this jump coincides with challenging equity market conditions, with a major fall in equity markets last August, followed by an increase in volatility from December to February,” said OneVue Head of Product and Transactions, Brett Marsh.

“All investors are reacting cautiously amid these global shifts and SMSF investors are no exception.”

A greater use of professional investment management also continues to be displayed by OneVue SMSF investors. “SMSFs are recognising the need for good advice and good investment management,” said Mr Marsh.

“The recent performance of popular picks such as resource and banking stocks have highlighted a need for some SMSFs to diversify and see managed funds as more attractive. But there is still an overall weighting towards direct assets such as property, cash and term deposits and shares.”

Cash and Term Deposits are now the fourth-biggest asset class in investments held by OneVue SMSF investors. The top three are managed funds (unitised trusts), then Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs), then Listed Shares.

In OneVue SMSF investment trends over the past year, managed funds (unitised trusts) rose to 28.74% for the March quarter of this year (compared to 23.09% in the March quarter last year), SMAs rose to 25.14%, (up from 22.81% over the same period), while Listed Shares dropped to 20.91% (down from 26.42%). Direct property also fell to 7.85% (down from 9.37% over the past year).

Advisers are also continuing to access professional investment management through actively managed and passively managed trusts, in particular asset classes such as international, infrastructure and alternatives, said Mr Marsh.

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The OneVue / Investment Trends 2013 SMSF Accountant Report reveals 28 per cent of accountants, up from 22 per cent in comparison to a year ago, are preferring not to refer SMSF clients to multiple financial planners but rather one trusted source that they have cemented a relationship with.

OneVue head of partner solutions Brett Marsh said individuals who are recommended to seek advice from a third party expect to be referred to someone who is skilled in SMSFs and who their accountant has confidence in.

“If accountants are going to encourage SMSF clients to engage with a new specialist, having a trusted relationship with that specialist is vital both in terms of client satisfaction and client retention,” Marsh said.

“With a number of mergers taking place between financial planning and accounting practices across the board, those that don’t offer an all encompassing service for SMSF clients are seeing greater value in building alliances with trusted professionals in order to remain competitive.”

Marsh said according to the OneVue / Investment Trends 2013 SMSF Accountant Report, 85 per cent of accountants have SMSF clients with investment-related queries, so having the qualifications or the contacts to provide that advice is a valuable service advantage.

“It’s not just the relationship between accountant and adviser that’s important though, it’s also the means by which they can work together, something we’ve been focusing on a lot at OneVue, particularly with the roll out of our new SMSF services for accountants and advisers,” Marsh said.

“In August this year we launched an accountant login so that accountants, like advisers who use our Unified Managed Account investment platform to administer their clients’ SMSFs, can get secure online access to comprehensive reporting that is provided both daily and as part of the end of year tax report.

“This includes substantiation documents that have been received throughout the year and which are required to complete the SMSF audit, as well as additional online reporting such as portfolio valuations and BGL Simple Fund download files.

“We also created the Accountant Ready solution, which includes data loading into BGL Simple Fund software and electronic workpaper preparation.

“These initiatives allow the accountant who the adviser is working with to view the client’s investment portfolio and more efficiently complete the accounting, compliance, audit and lodgement as required.”

Marsh added that the offering had generated a lot of calls from interested parties because it allows accountants and advisers to work in tandem while removing a lot of the administration work for accountants.

“We see that there is a growing importance being placed on adviser and accountant relationships and it is something that service providers need to support and make simpler going forward,” he said.

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Accountants ok with platforms as tools for managing SMSFs.

A growing number of accountants believe investment platforms are appropriate transaction, administration and reporting tools for their self managed super fund (SMSF) clients, the OneVue/Investment Trends 20113 SMSF Accountant Report has revealed.

OneVue head of partner solutions Brett Marsh said according to the study, while accountants estimate that only 18 per cent of their clients use investment platforms, a much larger 59 per cent of accountants surveyed said that investment platforms are an appropriate online facility to manage SMSF client portfolios.

“Accountants told us that 54 per cent of recent SMSF client investments were made through an investment platform despite that only one in five clients are using an investment platform currently,” he said.

“The most common reasons accountants said platforms were appropriate for SMSSFs were consolidated reporting, access too wholesale funds and wholesale rates, as well as easier administration and tracking of investments.

“Meanwhile, the common drivers for nominating a platform as the most suitable facility for SMSF clients were good reporting, good administration, easy too manage, familiarity with the platform they use and a comprehensive investment menu.”

Marsh said high costs were universally seen as the major barrier for SMSFs using investment platforms.

“A number of platforms have been cutting fees in recent times and more are placing greater attention on offering new efficiencies for t hose advisers and accountants who work alongside each other in catering to the SMSF sector,” he said.

“I think the newer platform entrants are really paving the way for further innovation to support accountant and adviser partnerships, particularly as they are not hamstrung by legacy systems which can sometimes be very costly to change.

“The smaller independents are boosting competition and helping modernise the industry through things like more extensive investment menus which give greater choice to accountants and advisers which is particularly important inn a post FoFA world where the client’s best interests are top off mind.”

Marsh added that the $505 billion SMSF industry in Australia continues to grow and online investment platforms that can make things more streamlined and transparent for clients can only be beneficial.

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OneVue rolls out SMSF services.

OneVue has extended its suite of self managed superannuation fund (SMSF) services following feedback from advisers and accountants who cater to the sector.

OneVue chief executive of partner solutions Brett Marsh said for advisers who administer a client’s SMSF via OneVue’s online investment platform, there are a number of ways they can now support their client’s accountant.

“Comprehensive reporting is provided both daily and as part of the end of year tax report, which includes substantiation documents that have been received throughout the year and that are required to complete the SMSF audit,” he said.

“An accountant login can now be established so that the accountant, like the adviser, can get secure online access to these reports as well as additional online reporting such as portfolio valuations and BGL Simple Fund download files.

“While this service is not exclusive to SMSF clients, our separate and newly-created ‘Accountant Ready’ solution, which includes data loading into BGL Simple Fund software and electronic workpaper preparation, is.

“The ‘Accountant Ready’ solution allows the accountant who the adviser is working with to view the client’s investment portfolio and more efficiently complete the accounting, compliance, audit and lodgement as required.”

Marsh said, these solutions coupled with OneVue’s mail house services and rigorous review of tax implications across all assets increases efficiencies for the growing number of advisers working with accountants.

“We have also made improvements to our existing ‘End-to-End’ solution for advisers who do not have an accounting partner and want a comprehensive service from a single provider,” Marsh said.

“Our ‘End-to-End’ solution comprises daily member interest reporting, ongoing administration of the SMSF, including minutes, preparation of ATO formatted reports, compliance, audit and tax lodgement.

“We have extended our SMSF establishment services as well, which are not limited to those who use our platform to administer their clients’ SMSFs.

“Our establishment services encompass the online creation of trust deeds, bank and investment account integration, corporate trustee registration as well as fund establishment with the ATO.”

Marsh said OneVue also gives clients the option to have their SMSF materials delivered electronically or printed and bound.

“We are very pleased to extend the range of SMSF services we have available and will continue to look at ways we can further enhance solutions for the growing number of advisers and accountants we work with,” he said.

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