March 2025
Interview with Sara Allen of Livewire Markets.
In a world of rapidly improving technology, shouldn’t there be options to make your investment management easier, more efficient and more flexible for you? This question is one of the drivers behind the increasing popularity of separately managed accounts (SMAs), an investment vehicle that has existed for decades but only hit its stride in more recent years.
In the last year, global assets under management in SMAs surpassed $2.4 trillion, while closer to home, MLC Asset Management’s own SMA business hit $3bn.
For the unfamiliar, SMAs are individual investment portfolios managed on your behalf by a professional investment manager and typically include a mix of assets, like direct shares, ETFs and managed funds. Investors have beneficial ownership of the assets in the portfolio, meaning access to benefits like franking credits, dividends and more.
Anthony Golowenko, Portfolio Manager for MLC's multi-manager funds, credits some of the growing popularity of these vehicles or platforms to “institutional investment manager insights being parted on multi-asset class solutions to advisers and ultimately, to their end clients.”
He adds that the flexibility of SMAs is resonating well in the market.
Once the realm of high-net-worth investors, SMAs have become more accessible and affordable to retail investors – but investors and financial advisers alike are still grappling with the ins and outs of using them.
In this episode of The Pitch, Golowenko discusses how SMAs work, what beneficial ownership means in the SMA structure and how investors and financial advisers can use them as part of an overarching investment strategy.
Watch the full interview below, recorded on Tuesday 4 March 2025.
