.jpg)
MA Operator, the fintech for financial advisers, today announced the addition of managed fund exchange platform uXchange to its offering.
uXchange provides advisers with simple, low-cost access to managed funds for their clients, and provides an alternative to traditional wrap platforms. MD Shannon Bernasconi said uXchange addressed a number of issues facing advisers in the space.
“Advisers moving away from platforms can save their clients a lot of money in fees while still easily including managed funds within their portfolios,” she said. “For advisers already off platform, uXchange offers the ability to scale their business by reducing manual effort and offering much more straight-through processing.”
High net worth clients in particular, Ms Bernasconi said, increasingly balk at the fees associated with wraps and platforms. “There is no ongoing fee associated with uXchange – it’s transaction fee based,” she said. “It still offers the benefits of a platform with reduced effort and paperwork in buying managed funds, beneficial ownership, distribution, holding and transaction data reporting.”
uXchange offers access to a range of registered domestic and global funds, which are selected based upon adviser and client demand. The platform is unconflicted as it is not aligned with any bank, product issuer or other financial institution.
Fund providers also benefit from the new technology, Ms Bernasconi said.
“This is a very low-cost and centralised way for providers to access independent advisory firms typically servicing HNW and SMSFs that aren’t currently using their products and to retain distribution from firms that are moving off platform,” she said.
uXchange is currently live with funds on the initial Approved Product List which have been requested by seven AFSLs who are going to utilise this new offering in managing their client’s portfolios. Ms Bernasconi said uXchange offered specific advantages that made it preferable for many licensee groups over other solutions such as MFund.
“uXchange offers a service that is familiar in the way it operates; is low cost; and slots perfectly into existing workflows,” she said. “The barriers to entry and usage are much lower which is why we have seen such an enthusiastic uptake of uXchange among existing and new MA Operator clients.”
uXchange is accessed via the MA Operator front end. MA Operator, which was launched last year, is a wide ranging fintech solution for advisers offering three different services:
- A complete service for managed discretionary accounts (MDAs), including risk and compliance management, which replaces numerous systems and processes advisers currently need to use to offer MDAs to clients
- Software and services solution for advised ROA based managed accounts and direct portfolios; and
- Software and services for external MDA Operators looking to improve efficiency and scale.
