- What is a managed account?
- Australian managed account market overview
- Specialist technology for wealth management
- Managed accounts technology: what do you need?
- Business impact and ROI
- Implementation planning
- Next steps framework
- Managed accounts: frequently asked questions
Last updated: October 2026
What is a managed account?
A managed account is an investment portfolio run on a client’s behalf by a professional manager, with the client keeping beneficial ownership of the underlying assets. In Australia the two main types are separately managed accounts (SMAs), a platform-based product, and managed discretionary accounts (MDAs), a service run under the advice firm’s own licence.
This guide covers the Australian managed accounts market, the technology needed to offer managed accounts, the business case, and how to plan an implementation. Each section links to a more detailed article.
How big is the Australian managed accounts market?
Managed accounts have emerged as a focal point within Australia’s financial advice landscape, gaining increased attention as their role in the retail financial services sector, and financial advice in general, continues to grow and mature.
The six-monthly managed account census from the Institute of Managed Account Professionals (IMAP) and Milliman shows managed account funds under management (FUM) reached about $315 billion at 30 June 2026, up from $256.24 billion a year earlier. Separately managed accounts (SMAs) hold 65% of that, and MDAs 20.3%.
The growth has come as the advice market itself has changed. In the wake of the Hayne Royal Commission, adviser numbers have shrunk to around 15,000 and the market has become more fragmented, prompting advisers to rethink the type of service they provide. Managed accounts were previously the realm of upper, middle and high-net-worth clients. The gap in advice for everyday investors looks most likely to be met by technology-driven solutions.
Managed accounts give advisers greater flexibility to provide more efficient services and professional portfolio management. The integration of managed accounts technology into advice workflows allows them to rebalance portfolios in real time, automate reporting, and have more effective oversight of diversified investments to ensure consistent alignment with client goals. Because of streamlined operations and improved efficiency, advisers are able to focus on managing their clients’ needs and the relationship while automating portfolio administration and reporting.
For investors, the key benefits of managed accounts typically lie in better returns, exposure to various asset classes through their primary investment platform, greater transparency and the ability to have personalised preferences taken into account.
There is still considerable room for growth. The Chelmer Wealth Management Report found that most respondents had less than 25% of their total FUM in managed accounts, and a significant proportion had less than 10%. Equities were the most commonly managed account asset type, followed by multi-asset strategies using underlying funds, then fixed income.
Specialist technology for wealth management
There is a diverse range of wealth management software available in the market, from global SaaS providers to custom-built in-house solutions, each with varying functionality, performance and user satisfaction. The ability to scale operations while accommodating personalised preferences has become essential as managed accounts continue to grow in prominence.
In 2023, Chelmer, in conjunction with Suite2Go, identified two critical success factors among leading managed account providers: customer centricity through enhanced visibility, strong client portals and comprehensive reporting; and modular, scalable platforms that deliver complete front-to-back office solutions. (Source: The current state and future needs of wealth technology 2023 report)
Chelmer has been pioneering financial technology for over 30 years, providing specialist wealth management software to leading firms across Asia-Pacific. Today, our wealth management software Myriad manages over USD $70 billion in investor assets, processing hundreds of millions of dollars in daily transactions for our clients.
Myriad is purpose-built to support the flexibility and complexity that managed and discretionary accounts demand. As a tailorable software solution, Myriad enables wealth managers to operate with greater efficiency across the complete business lifecycle, from customer management and target asset allocation through to order execution, transaction settlement, portfolio aggregation and reporting.
Our modular approach means you can expand existing functionality or work towards a full replacement of legacy systems, creating operational efficiencies that free your team to focus on what matters most: client wealth creation.
Managed accounts technology: what do you need?
The growth of managed accounts in the Australian market is being fuelled not only by shifts in adviser business models, but also by rapid advances in wealth management technology. Managed accounts technology is playing a pivotal role in enabling advisers to expand their managed account offering by making advice delivery more scalable, compliant and cost effective. Personalisation is a key benefit of efficient managed accounts technology used in a discretionary service, but it also offers standardisation where it is important.
Core technology components financial institutions need
Wealth management technology supports various financial service models, including investor-led, adviser-led and discretionary businesses. Technology should allow businesses to facilitate self-service for clients and adapt to changes in client preferences, such as moving to adviser-managed services or discretionary options.
Whether you are running a discretionary accounts type service or a managed portfolio service, the underlying technology requirements are extremely similar.
If you look at the modules of functionality or data in an advice-led business, the technology will define what an asset is and information about that asset. That includes client representation, things like origin and destination of funds and asset ownership, and asset representation, including characteristics and trading methods. You will be running some form of portfolio and the ability to report on that. You will be placing orders and passing them through to execution management systems, and you are going to have reporting at various levels as well as some level of compliance overlay.
To start providing discretionary account services, there are a couple of key additional managed account technology or data elements that are needed that may not have existed in an advisory or traditional broking service model. Generally speaking, a good MDA platform will have all the data and elements of a traditional broking or advice technology platform, but with the additional functionality that allows you to concurrently provide an SMA or MDA type service model.
Target asset allocation
A target asset allocation defines the desired or ‘target state’ of a portfolio. It sets the exact mix of assets that a portfolio should hold to achieve its investment objectives. In discretionary managed accounts, each client portfolio is attached to one of these target asset allocation models, providing consistency and a clear investment framework.
Essentially, you are looking for managed accounts technology to capture data for the portfolio target or model portfolio, not just at the top-level asset allocation to asset classes, but all the way down to the individual asset weightings themselves. This, when combined with the actual portfolio holdings, provides the mechanism to rebalance (mass order generation). The business process shifts from changing portfolio holdings (orders) to changing models (targets).
To gain efficiency benefits from managed accounts, the target asset allocation must be defined at the individual asset level. This granular detail enables systems to automatically generate and process orders for rebalancing and adjustments. Without this, the system cannot efficiently execute or scale the management process.
Portfolio rules
In addition to portfolio targets, the managed accounts technology will need to hold compliance-related investment data.
Looking at target asset allocation or looking at the portfolio tells you what you should have or do have, but is silent on things like what the investor cannot do or what assets the investor cannot hold. You might see that your Australian equities are at a given target weight, but you cannot necessarily tell if there is a target range and whether the target is within the range, or that they cannot hold Malaysian equities.
So, you are looking for technology to capture data around concentration and exposure rules and any exclusions or suitability criteria.
Some of this may be organisation policy, some may be organisation profile setting, and some will be individual client personalisation. These are typically a combination of ‘must haves’, including asset type and sector, but also the ‘must nots’, for example you cannot hold certain asset classes or assets. Good managed accounts technology will validate that changes in the model portfolios or targets conform with the compliance data before they come into effect, and that orders generated at the rebalance stage also conform with the compliance data rules.
Using standardised target asset allocation models allows advisers to serve more clients efficiently. For example, managing 30 model portfolios for many clients is far more scalable than managing 100 unique allocations for 100 clients. The goal is to maintain a manageable number of target models while still offering personalisation. Managed accounts technology allows individual investor constraints, for example excluding certain sectors or assets, or including certain holdings, to be applied on top of a shared target model. A client is attached to one of the common mandates or models, but their constraints or overrides are applied individually against that target. Investment management handles fewer models, and the adviser is still able to provide highly personalised outcomes to their clients.
Rebalancing
Having the target asset allocation at the individual asset level not only provides transparency because you can see exactly what you are going to invest in, but it also means that technology can do rebalancing.
Rebalancing is simply mass order generation, creating buy and sell orders to align holdings with their target weights. However, adjusting a portfolio to bring it back in line with its target asset allocation can only be achieved if you have both the current portfolio holdings, including existing orders, and the target asset allocation at individual asset weights.
At its simplest, rebalancing automates the adviser manually entering a lot of orders, which can be done over a period of time. Rebalancing in some service models may still be performed by an adviser or portfolio manager, and may allow for variance from the targets, but other business models may have the rebalancing done by technology as an automated background process.
Gone are the problems of manually placing orders in all portfolios to sell an asset that needs urgently removing, the inequality in execution that causes because of timing, or not being able to reach clients to make a decision on an elective corporate action.
More complex scenarios can also be handled by technology like Myriad, which holds detailed asset and client information. One example is the switch from an unlisted fund in custody, where the cash redemption may be weeks after the order execution, into buying an equity registered to the client HIN, which expects payment two days after execution.
Individual asset weight management vs basic asset allocation
Basic asset allocation, seen in advisory models, sorts investments into broad risk profiles by setting percentages across asset classes such as cash, fixed income and equities. It establishes the general investment strategy but doesn’t specify which individual securities are held.
Individual asset weight management goes further and defines the specific holdings and their target weights within the model. That gives investors transparency over exactly what the model holds, and it is what makes technology-driven rebalancing possible.
For how to structure models so that one change flows through every portfolio, see individual asset weight management: beyond asset class allocation.
Automated rebalancing and compliance integration
Automated rebalancing supports compliance by ensuring portfolios consistently reflect the agreed target allocation and investment mandate. It also eliminates manual error, streamlines order generation and allows advisory businesses to scale efficiently by reducing manual workload.
While manual order placement is possible in non-discretionary models, automated rebalancing provides efficiency. Coupled with detailed asset data, it means that minimum order sizes and holding sizes can be used to ensure that execution costs are not introduced into the portfolio through excessive order churn.
In manual or advisory models, advisers place individual orders to realign portfolios, as systems typically only know the top-level allocation (for example 30% equities, 70% bonds). Without individual asset-level models, the system cannot determine what specific assets to trade.
In an MDA, the systems can automatically detect when a portfolio deviates from the model and generate all necessary orders for realignment, without human intervention or client approval. In non-discretionary (advisory) accounts, automation can still propose those orders, but they require the client’s approval before execution. In either model, with integrated OMS/EMS technology these orders can then be managed through to execution.
Technology differences between SMA and MDA models
SMA providers focus on managing the target asset allocation and issuing the product, often relying on third-party platforms for client onboarding and order placement, which limits their automation capabilities.
MDA providers offer a service rather than a product, and tend to manage more of the client-level operations themselves. That calls for more robust internal technology for personalisation. Sophisticated MDA technology can encompass SMA functionality, but SMA-only technology is operationally inefficient for highly personalised services.
For the full comparison, including governance, client fit and a side-by-side table, see SMA vs MDA: why the question matters more than the answer.
Business impact and ROI
Managed account technology pays for itself through recurring revenue and adviser capacity. For a worked framework you can run on your own numbers, see the ROI of managed account technology.
Revenue enhancement
In a transactional revenue model, income comes solely from transaction costs. This model leads to “lumpy” revenue, as clients only transact when markets are rising. In a service-based model, a percentage of the portfolio’s value is charged on an agreed period basis, ensuring recurring revenue regardless of market fluctuations or transaction volume.
Operational efficiency gains
Managed account technology enables advisers to service more clients by optimising the client-to-target model ratio. Sophisticated technology applies individual client constraints or overrides against a standard model, so an adviser can deliver a personalised client experience without creating a new model for each client.
The ratio of model portfolios to client portfolios is a business metric every discretionary service should track. A one-to-one ratio is a poor efficiency result, and usually points to poor technology.
Efficient MDA models also shorten the time from model change to portfolio execution, from days to minutes or hours. That allows faster asset adjustments after market announcements than advisory models, where client approvals cause delays.
Because Myriad has so many modules and user interfaces, organisations can move processes directly to the user at the point of origination. This saves operational time and, done well, removes risk because re-keying of information is removed.
For the detail on adviser-to-client ratios and the metrics that show a healthy practice, see managed discretionary account technology: how to scale adviser capacity.
Premium pricing capabilities through personalisation
While personalised portfolios may warrant slightly higher fees, the main advantage of models such as MDAs and SMAs lies in their operational efficiency. This efficiency, supported by technology, allows advisers to serve more clients and grow revenue without a corresponding rise in costs, as many operational expenses remain fixed.
For more on this, see managed accounts software: enabling investment personalisation at scale.
Implementation planning
Technology integration considerations
There are significant challenges in technology integration within financial services. Software systems have piled up in the financial industry in an ad hoc way, with little thought for how they integrate.
The broad and complex nature of the technology domain is a major hurdle, making it unrealistic for any single vendor to cover all needs, so businesses often purchase multiple overlapping technologies. Wealth managers and financial advisers might have up to a dozen applications on their desktop, or a browser running a tab for each system, that lack standardisation and don’t talk to each other. Advisers may use different applications for adviser business needs and platform software for client needs. This involves a mix of solutions for advice preparation and delivery, alongside investment platforms where they are executing the service and holding assets.
On the whole, platforms still dominate the availability of information. The complexity of opening those systems up through integration means advisory firms are limited by what platforms want to enable. Even for the very small number of platforms that provide a modern technology interface, it is still a longer and more complicated integration process than it should be. Standards exist as a technology layer, but they don’t provide a business standard. The lack of industry standardisation and scale within financial services, unlike in industries such as accounting, makes bespoke interfaces a common but costly necessity.
Duplicating data due to poor integration is a common problem in the industry, leading to significant operational challenges. FDC3 (Financial Desktop Connectivity and Collaboration Consortium) is a messaging standard that provides interoperability between financial desktop applications and browsers. FDC3 helps prevent data re-keying across systems like CRM, marketing, advice generation and note taking, ensuring data is created once and automatically propagated. This integration saves time by automating tasks, such as generating meeting summaries and client communications, directly from the tools used.
Change management factors
There’s no way to sugar-coat it: technology implementation projects are often problematic and rarely just technical undertakings. They are complex, time-intensive projects that test an organisation’s decision-making, structure and its ability to manage change. Businesses typically initiate technology change when the perceived problem of inaction outweighs the challenges of implementation. Many firms underestimate this complexity, overestimate anticipated outcomes and fail to account for the broader organisational shifts required to make new systems successful.
A common misstep is treating implementation as a “set and forget” exercise, rather than an ongoing process that evolves with the business. Projects frequently stumble due to limited management buy-in and insufficient attention to change management. Even with the rise of new technologies, such as AI, adoption can be patchy, reducing potential return on investment.
Much of the difficulty lies in human behaviour. Organisations often focus on what isn’t working in their current system while overlooking what is. In the rush to solve existing pain points, they sometimes adopt new technology that inadvertently creates bigger problems in areas that were previously stable.
Successful implementations depend on strong leadership, realistic planning and sustained management buy-in. Change must be actively managed, measured and resourced. Without this, even well-designed solutions can fail to gain traction or deliver meaningful improvements.
Chelmer’s deep domain expertise and Myriad’s modular technology offer a proven framework for managing these challenges. Built on open architecture principles, Myriad supports incremental, phased implementation, minimising disruption and helping organisations evolve their systems over time. Our support for industry standards such as FDC3 ensures compatibility and integration with existing platforms, enabling firms to modernise while retaining the elements that already work.
Timeline and success metrics
Because Myriad is no-code, personalised, modular software built on open architecture principles, it can be implemented in stages and integrated into business workflows. This approach extends the life and functionality of existing technology while providing a clear pathway away from legacy systems.
For just over a decade, Chelmer has partnered with one of New Zealand’s leading wealth management firms to replace their legacy technologies, delivering greater automation, efficiency and improved functionality. The project established a strong foundation for further development, using Myriad’s software components and open architecture to progressively replace additional systems and connect internal and external platforms. The result was a highly integrated solution that simplified operations and reduced overhead.
Since implementing Myriad, the firm has achieved exponential growth in funds under management without a proportional increase in operational staff. Advisers can now offer clients more sophisticated, tailored investment options with real-time visibility, strengthening the firm’s competitive edge.
For what an implementation involves step by step, see what building a fixed income MDA actually involves.
Next steps framework
Assessment and planning approach
With deep domain expertise and a proven record of successful delivery, Chelmer understands what drives effective outcomes. We are committed to creating customised and personalised technology strategies in partnership with our clients. Our focus is on developing progressive, long-term partnerships that allow us to continually evolve and co-create solutions as needs change, ensuring sustained value and growth over time.
Building managed account capability through partnership
When a managed account services company set out to strengthen its MDA technology, the search for a partner who combined proven technology with a shared vision for innovation led to Chelmer. The combination of Chelmer’s modular Myriad solution and the organisation’s market and business analysis capability presented a compelling opportunity to demonstrate the true flexibility and potential of MDAs.
The company selected Chelmer because the team showed a genuine commitment to developing managed account capability. Chelmer’s existing technology provided an excellent foundation for enhancing and customising features to meet the specific requirements of MDA delivery, while also establishing a basis for future development. Few providers in the market offered such a robust and adaptable solution.
What made the partnership particularly effective was its progressive, collaborative nature. Both teams brought complementary strengths: Chelmer with deep technical expertise, and the company with strong market insight and strategic understanding.
Together, this partnership created an environment of co-innovation, allowing both organisations to learn from each other, refine their approaches and overcome the challenges that emerged along the way. The result is managed account technology that not only delivers on current needs but is built for continuous evolution as the MDA landscape progresses.
For a recent example, read how IAM launched a fixed income MDA in under a year.
Implementation roadmap overview
When it comes to implementation, Chelmer’s project management methodology has been refined and strengthened through successful implementations of Myriad for our clients.
- First, we develop a thorough understanding of your business so we can determine how we can add value.
- Then, we custom-configure a solution that meets your unique needs and processes.
- As the industry, your customers and your business grow, we evolve your solution: adjusting and re-configuring components, adding new features, and integrating new advances quickly and efficiently.
- We ensure Myriad integrates with your key suppliers and partners.
Our approach to partnering with clients means that we regularly share our technology and Myriad’s development roadmap. Client input is extremely valuable and is used to refine and focus our thinking and drive the R&D input to the software releases.
Our development roadmap continues to extend this advantage of distributed computing, applying the same concepts to the user interface with the implementation of micro UIs. This provides flexibility in personalisation and, when coupled with technologies such as FDC3 and PWAs, changes the user desktop experience.
Resources for getting started
Review Myriad for managed and discretionary accounts to see the functionality that lets you manage client asset preferences at scale, or talk to our team.
Managed accounts: frequently asked questions
What is a managed account?
A managed account is an investment portfolio run on a client’s behalf by a professional manager. The client keeps beneficial ownership of the underlying assets and can see exactly what the portfolio holds. Portfolios follow a model or mandate, so changes are applied across many clients at once.
What types of managed accounts are there in Australia?
The two main types are separately managed accounts (SMAs) and managed discretionary accounts (MDAs). An SMA is a product, usually offered through a platform, where every client in the same model holds the same assets. An MDA is a service, where each client has an individual arrangement with the adviser. Individually managed accounts (IMAs) are also generally regarded as a service.
Who uses managed accounts?
Financial advisers, wealth managers and broking firms use managed accounts to run client portfolios more efficiently. Managed accounts are now used by nearly 60% of Australian advisers (Investment Trends, 2025). They were once mainly for high-net-worth clients and are now used across a much wider client base.
What technology do you need to offer managed accounts?
You need technology that holds target asset allocations down to individual asset weights, stores each client’s portfolio rules and exclusions, and generates rebalancing orders automatically. It also needs order management, reporting and a compliance overlay. An MDA service needs more client-level functionality than an SMA.
How big is the Australian managed accounts market?
Managed account funds under management reached about $315 billion at 30 June 2026, up from $256.24 billion a year earlier, according to the IMAP and Milliman census. SMAs held 65% of that and MDAs 20.3%.
Andy Robertson is Chelmer’s Director and Chief Innovation Officer. His focus is on shaping the future of investing and wealth management, and he plays a vital role in setting the product direction for Chelmer’s wealth technology solution, Myriad. His career has been in financial markets and financial services with a technology focus.