North expands managed portfolio options

North has added more customisation options for managed portfolios to the platform to give advisers more flexibility over the assets their clients hold.

The platform said this would allow advisers to have more control over their clients’ managed portfolios and tailor them to individual preferences and goals, customising the underlying holdings to account for any specific client objectives or needs.

According to AMP group executive, platforms, Edwina Maloney, the additions will help North provide a “frictionless experience” for advisers.

“We’re always looking for ways to serve more advisers and increase the number of independent financial planners who call North home, which is why we’re focused on expanding North’s investment menu and delivering further additions aimed at increasing efficiency,” Maloney said.

She added that the update to North’s investment menu would now provide advice practices with smaller balances greater access to tailored solutions and serve a larger number of clients who were previously limited.

“We recognise that advice practices with smaller balances have not traditionally been able to access bespoke managed portfolio solutions and we wanted to solve for this underserved segment of the market,” Maloney said.

“Advisers are increasingly demanding resources that can help them deliver managed account solutions in a cost-effective and bespoke way to more clients.

“By investing in innovative platform functionality and flexibility, we’re helping deliver portfolio customisation at scale, empowering more advisers with our market-leading managed portfolio solutions and an exceptional platform that’s easy to use.”

North has also added enhancements to North Online to support the introduction of investment preferences and portfolio exclusions.

“Advisers can now nominate one or more assets to not be held within a client’s managed portfolio, with options to nominate a substitute asset, hold the allocation in managed portfolio cash, or spread the allocation proportionally across other assets in the client’s managed portfolio,” North said in a statement.

The preferences would apply across its managed portfolios and remain in place until the instruction is deleted or the account is closed.

North Online has also added a managed portfolio investment preferences section to its Investment Instruction screen and introduced an adviser report feature that outlines investment preferences for advisers with managed portfolio clients.

The platform also announced that Mercer will take over as investment manager for the APS CoreSeries Managed Portfolio range, replacing Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

The three portfolios, across conservative, balanced and growth investment options, are currently open for investment to both new and existing investors. North added that the Mercer appointment would also see lower manager fees for clients of “at least” 0.08 per cent per annum.