Investment consultancy JANA is seeking to expand its wealth business after growing funds under advice to $15 billion in just six years, $3 billion of which is in managed accounts.
“We’re actively looking to expand our consulting relationships with managed account providers. We support high net worth advice firms with scalable, institutional grade solutions, including model management of managed accounts, an area we’re looking to substantially accelerate,” JANA Wealth senior consultant Bill Dwyer says.
“As more practices seek to institutionalise their offerings, and with consolidation driven by increased platform and responsible entity governance, we see strong alignment between our capabilities and the evolving needs of managed account providers,” he says.
As managed accounts grow in popularity, institutional investment consultants with decades of experience like JANA have extended their services into this space, making institutional-quality investment advice accessible to retail investors.
Along with managed account structure setup and development support, JANA Wealth offers model portfolio support, investment committee support attendance and access to its capital market research capabilities including SPARK and SOLVE.
Dwyer says the appeal of managed accounts lies in the transparency, efficiency and governance they offer retail investors. They can also provide them with exposure to a variety of different asset classes that can be difficult to access as retail investors.
“We see managed account investors increasingly looking beyond traditional assets. There’s strong demand for liquid alternatives like long-short equity, global macro, managed futures as well as evergreen private equity. We also see managed account investors exploring Australian small caps and diversified fixed income, which is popular for yield and portfolio resilience,” Dwyer says.
Liquid alternatives are already apart of the managed accounts that JANA advises on, and Dwyer expects the focus on this asset class to continue to grow as more investors recognise its strong diversification benefits and low correlation to traditional asset classes. All of these qualities mean liquid alternatives can aid portfolio resilience under a range of market conditions.
“The liquid alternative universe has evolved significantly over the past decade, fees have come down, and governance and transparency have improved. So, for many investors, these strategies are no longer alternative but a core component of a well-constructed portfolio,” Dwyer says.
Fund manager providers of liquid alternatives are responding to increased demand from retail investors and building strategies that fit their specific liquidity and transparency requirements.
“That’s opening the door to genuine diversification within managed account portfolios. It’s part of broader shift towards portfolios built for resilience rather than just returns,” Dwyer says.
In its Signature Series, the JANA Signature Core managed account is a typical balanced portfolio and holds around 70 per cent in growth assets and 30 per cent in defensive assets. Approximately 10 per cent of that growth allocation is to liquid alternatives, including long-short equity and credit and multi-strategy hedge funds.
“These allocations are designed to strengthen diversification and generate returns that are less reliant on traditional market movements,” Dwyer says.
Funds under advice in JANA Wealth now account for nearly 10 per cent of JANA’s total funds under advice and the business is gearing up for further growth in wealth with the hire of another senior investment consultant, David Wilson, earlier this year. It currently has more than 15 clients including Investor Wealth and Wealthtrac and was also advertising for a national manager, wealth sales in September.
“As JANA expands its presence in the wealth sector, we are seeing increasing demand for customised managed account engagements and remain committed to delivering institutional-quality insights and portfolio solutions our client’s trust,” JANA Wealth head Michael Karagianis said when announcing Wilson’s appointment.