Scaling advice identified as managed accounts | Australian Markets

Financial advisers are comfy outsourcing the handling of managed accounts to investment management specialists if it means they’ll spend more time with purchasers, in keeping with new analysis launched by Zenith Investment Partners.

Zenith, who with different analysis and rankings homes, gives managed accounts providers to advisers has produced a new report which strongly validates its offering but additionally highlights remaining challenges.

The report, Unlocking Advice Efficiencies in 2025, relies on response from 460 financial advisers and has led the firm to conclude that 81% of respondents “are satisfied or extremely satisfied with their managed account provider, indicating broad approval of service quality”.

Commenting on report, Zenith head of portfolio options, Steven Tang mentioned advisers had despatched a sturdy message by means of their adoption of managed accounts.

“Managed accounts are demonstrating their value to advice businesses, with 92% of advisers reporting time savings in administrative tasks and 81% expressing overall satisfaction,” Tang mentioned.

“However, challenges exist to their broader adoption,” he mentioned. “The migration of legacy portfolios, cost considerations, and client preferences for bespoke solutions key barriers to the broader adoption of managed accounts in Australia.”

The Zenith report additionally instructed that scaling advice is seen as one other essential problem of utilizing managed accounts, with a important preparedness hole revealed throughout all apply sizes. Boutique practices being the least ready (37% readiness vs. 72% perceived impression), the report discovered.

“Still, advisers report significant efficiency gains from adopting managed accounts, with 44% indicating time savings in administrative and research tasks of up to 25%. Notably, custom or private label managed accounts offer the greatest time reductions, particularly for practices seeking higher operational efficiency,” Zenith claimed.

“While larger and high-growth practices lead the way in managed account adoption, boutique and conservative practices face hurdles with implementation and strategic alignment,” Tang mentioned.

The report acknowledged that, more usually, advisers rank investment philosophy, efficiency and costs as the highest elements when choosing a managed account supplier. Private label options are most well-liked for alignment with investment philosophy, whereas off-the shelf choices appeal to cost-conscious advisers attributable to decrease charges.

“The report found that 50% of advisers cite investment philosophy as a primary reason for provider selection. This is particularly important for private label users (60%) and custom managed account users (53%), reflecting the need for tailored strategies to reflect a practices’ investment philosophy,” Tang mentioned

Portfolio efficiency ranks as one other key issue for 47% of advisers in choosing a managed account supplier. Off-the-shelf managed accounts lead on this class, with 51% of customers prioritising suppliers with a sturdy efficiency monitor file.

The report additionally discovered that charges are a high concern for 55% of off-the-shelf customers, in comparison with 27% for customized managed accounts and 26 per cent for personal label options, highlighting value issues in choice of each supplier and managed account kind.