CFS Edge expands managed accounts with Morningstar

Colonial First State (CFS) has announced the addition of a range of managed accounts from Morningstar to its CFS Edge platform, with users now having access to the Morningstar Medalist series, including Conservative, Moderate, Balanced, Growth, High Growth, and an All-Growth Portfolio.

“Managed accounts are synonymous with efficiency and the addition of Morningstar’s SMAs to Edge will further enhance the timesaving benefits that advisers are looking for in professionally managed portfolios,” said CFS group executive – distribution, Bryce Quirk.

“Utilising best-of-breed portfolio management capability and investment strategies, managed accounts on Edge are designed to deliver efficient portfolio implementation and transparency of investments in a cost-effective solution.”

Matt Wacher, chief investment officer, Asia-Pacific at Morningstar, added that the firm is “delighted” its suite of SMAs are on CFS Edge.

“Our SMAs not only bring together a diversified portfolio of investment opportunities into portfolios that are a proven outperformers but also add efficiencies to an adviser’s practice, with a multi-asset solution that integrates seamlessly with an adviser’s business,” Mr Wacher said.

The addition of Morningstar follows a number of other managed account providers to have recently partnered with CFS Edge, including Atchison, Drummond, Infinity Asset Management, and Russell Investments.

“We will continue to expand our managed account menu and look forward to partnering with leading investment managers,” Mr Quirk said.

“Advisers have told us that the needs of their clients are evolving, and we are responding at pace to those needs.”

When the platform was launched earlier this year, CFS stressed that CFS Edge is the first major wealth management platform with “managed accounts at its core”.

Mr Quirk noted at the time that CFS has had the benefit of a much more mature managed account market than was available previously.

“Portfolio construction and managed accounts in particular are at the heart of how the platform operates and being able to tailor that to multiple business models – whether it’s through MDA, whether it’s through SMA, whether it’s through model portfolios – so we took that lens to make sure that we can deliver that,” he told ifa.

“But then also there’s multiple stakeholders with managed accounts, so there’s the adviser themselves, there’s the client, but then there’s also asset consultants, there’s licensees and other contributors to the selection process to run a managed account.

“We took all of those perspectives in what we designed to make sure that they had their own experience that met their role in that process. So, what a portfolio manager does is quite different to what the adviser does, and so they needed different tools and desktops to execute on that.”

The addition of the Morningstar Medalist range to CFS Edge is the suite’s second platform listing in less than a month, following AMP North adding the range to its investment menu in November.