AMP reported that assets under management (AUM) for North’s range of managed portfolios exceeded $5 billion – a 140% increase over the past year.
The news coincides with the announcement that three new portfolios will be added to the platform in the coming weeks – the Research Australian Equity Portfolio and the Research Australian Equity Income Portfolio, managed by North’s research team, and the Elston Australian Large Companies Portfolio, managed by Elston Asset Management.
The new additions will bring North’s total number of portfolios under management to 67.
It comes after a report by State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) and Investment Trends published in March found that a record number of financial advisers are using managed accounts.
The survey found that over half (53 percent) of advisors use managed accounts; a significant increase from 16 percent a decade ago.
About 60 percent of advisors now also recommend managed accounts to their clients, up from 44 percent last year and 33 percent pre-COVID (2019).
“The evidence is clear that managed portfolios are now the preferred way for most advisers to support their clients’ investment needs and we expect this growth to continue,” said AMP’s director of platforms Edwina Maloney.
“Our priority as a platform is to ensure that North’s range of managed portfolios provides an expanding choice of investment styles and asset classes, and that we continue to partner with the industry’s leading investment managers.
“As we strengthen our managed portfolio offer, we will also continue to build North’s broader investment choice, as evidenced by these further additions to the menu. In total, we have added more than 63 investments since the beginning of 2022.
“We’re also keeping fees extremely competitive and improving North’s technology capabilities, including the recent launch of our client app.”
Shortly before the launch of the client app, the Adviser Ratings landscape report, which looked at how financial advice has been impacted by the changing nature of wealth management through a range of projects, including over 40,000 adviser and consumer surveys, found that advisers intend to use more investment platforms in 2022 to “serve clients more effectively and efficiently.”
Over 50 percent also say they aim to increase ESG exposure this year.
Meanwhile, in April, after adding 13 more ESG options to its menu, North reported that AUM for its ESG options grew 6.5 times faster than non-ESG investments over the past calendar year.
