Most advisers I know didn’t get into this industry to spend their mornings checking portfolio positions. But somewhere along the way, that’s what a volatile week becomes. April was a good reminder of how quickly the calendar fills with the wrong things.
When markets moved sharply through early April, advisers across the country had the same experience. The day that was supposed to go one way went another. Client calls, position reviews, fielding questions, explaining what was happening — all reasonable, all necessary, all time that came from somewhere else. From the conversations that were already in the diary. From the business development that keeps getting pushed. From the thinking time that never quite materialises.
This isn’t a new problem. It’s just a visible one.
The reality for most advice practices is that somewhere between 8% and 12% of working time goes to investment and portfolio management. The rest — the vast majority — goes to clients, compliance, administration, and running the business. That’s not a flaw in how advisers work. It’s the job. Financial advice is a relationship business, and the adviser’s time is most valuable when it’s pointed directly at clients.
The question worth sitting with is whether the portfolio infrastructure supporting that work is actually built to function within that constraint. Or whether it quietly demands more — more attention, more decisions, more time — than the business can afford to give it.
Advisers built their practices the way they did for good reason. They developed real investment knowledge. They built portfolios they could stand behind and explain to clients. They managed the whole process because that’s what the model looked like, and it worked. For a long time, it worked well.
What’s changed is not the quality of advisers. What’s changed is what’s now available to them.
The managed account has matured into something genuinely different from what it was a decade ago. The technology is better. The mandate structures are more sophisticated. The platforms have made implementation faster and the reporting cleaner. And the data on what managed accounts actually do to an advice business is increasingly compelling.
Research by Business Health and the Institute of Managed Account Professionals suggests that managed accounts saved advice businesses an average of 14.4 hours per week. Advisers themselves recovered nearly five hours a week for revenue-generating activity. Practices using managed accounts were seeing 7.4 client appointments weekly against an industry average of 6.0. Revenue per adviser running more than 24% ahead of peers.
Those aren’t rounding errors. That’s a different business.
There’s an efficiency story here, and it’s compelling. But the more important story is about quality of advice. When portfolio implementation, rebalancing, and day-to-day market monitoring sits with an investment manager whose only job is to do that well — and whose decisions land simultaneously across every client account — the adviser gets their week back. Not to do less. To do more of what actually matters.
April illustrated this clearly. Advisers operating through a managed account structure spent that volatile week where they should have been — on the phone to clients, talking through what was happening, reinforcing the plan, keeping people steady. The investment decisions were already being handled. The advisers managing portfolios directly were trying to do both at once. At the worst possible time to be splitting attention.
The advice industry has shifted. The value of good advice is more widely understood and better rewarded than it has been at any point in the past two decades. The practices winning in that environment are not the ones with the most elaborate in-house investment process. They’re the ones where the adviser is fully present for clients, backed by investment infrastructure that runs without needing constant attention.
Outsourcing portfolio management used to feel like a concession. Increasingly, it looks like the decision the best-run practices made first.
The question isn’t whether you’re capable of managing portfolios. Most advisers are. The question is whether that’s still the best use of what you’ve built — and whether your clients are getting the version of you they actually need.
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Disclaimer
This material has been prepared by Dynamic Asset Consulting Pty Limited (ABN 82 079 145 298, AFSL 502623) of Sydney NSW 2000. Any content provided in this Report is for general information purposes only. It is not personal advice and does not take into account the investment objectives, financial situation or needs of any person. Please seek specific advice before making a decision in relation to any investment. Before making any decision about any product you should obtain a Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) or Investment Mandate (IM) document for further information. A copy of our PDS or IM is available from your adviser or by contacting us through our website at www.dynamicasset.com.au
