BT updates Panorama portfolio functions

The updates on BT Panoramas are reported to give advisers greater flexibility when managing clients on tailored portfolios, and provide more information about investment weighting in adviser portfolios.

Zac Leman, head of managed accounts at BT, said even before the COVID crisis, many advisers had been looking to reposition client portfolio.

“As markets fell at an unprecedented pace and have risen just as spectacularly over the course of the year, advisers have spent more time monitoring and adjusting their clients’ portfolios,” Mr Leman said.

“Witnessing the material increase in portfolio changes and rebalancing in tailored and adviser portfolios, we saw an opportunity to ease the administrative burden on advisers.”

Tailored and adviser portfolios are a growing segment for BT, now representing more than 6 per cent of Panorama’s total $32 billion in funds under administration. Adviser portfolios have increased fivefold in terms of client numbers in the 12 months to October.

The new updates will give advisers the ability to differentiate between accounts by choosing which accounts to include or exclude automatically from rebalances, as well as individually tailoring rebalance orders to allow for individual client needs, before placing in the market.

In certain instances, the platform will make automatic adjustments to rebalancing orders, making their monitoring easier and reducing the need for advisers to make changes manually. If a buy order generated from a tailored portfolio rebalance is queued due to insufficient cash, it will automatically be adjusted to the amount of available cash in the account then submitted.

Tolerance breach reporting will also be available for all accounts linked to adviser portfolios, providing advisers with a view of any accounts with assets outside of their pre-determined asset weight tolerance. This could assist advisers with identifying and timing ad-hoc client rebalances.

When performing a rebalance, advisers can choose to apply or not apply the tolerance range.

To minimise transactions within a client account, ad-hoc investments or withdrawals can be made without triggering a rebalance, and advisers can see in their client list any client preferences and the last rebalance date. This could help advisers to more easily identify and time ad-hoc client rebalances.

Finally, a client can now substitute one asset for another within adviser, tailored and managed portfolios.