There has been a marked shift in the wealth management space towards discretionary portfolio management over the past few years. According to industry data, more financial advisers are adopting model portfolios or discretionary mandates to manage client assets.

The logic is clear: rather than managing each client’s portfolio individually, a model-based approach ensures investment consistency and scalability.

This shift is particularly pronounced in markets with maturing advisory ecosystems. More firms in these markets are embracing the “one portfolio, many clients” framework, offering portfolios that align with varying risk levels, such as conservative, balanced, or aggressive.

However, this evolution also poses a new set of challenges. In real-life scenarios, advisers face considerable execution and monitoring burdens, especially when managing across hundreds of clients.

One common pain point involves client timing and currency differences. For example, even if two clients are in the same “balanced” model, their buy-in dates, currencies, or fund access may differ, leading to portfolio drift over time.

Next, maintaining alignment with a model portfolio requires regular rebalancing. Without the right tools in place, advisers must manually monitor deviations and submit transaction orders, often one by one, which can cause rebalancing complexities.

Finally, in fast-moving markets, identifying which clients hold a specific product and executing effectively across all relevant accounts is time-consuming, which may lead to missed opportunities and affect market responsiveness.

Many advisers, therefore, end up spending more time on administrative tasks rather than actual portfolio strategy or client management.

Tools That Empower Financial Advisers as Portfolio Managers

To address these bottlenecks, forward-thinking platforms are introducing tools that allow advisers to operate more like portfolio managers, handling rebalancing, mass transactions, and model tracking.

• One-click subscription: Clients can buy into the set model at any time, in any currency, and with any investment amount, without manual calculation.
• Rebalancing functions: Automatically calculating and generating the necessary trades to bring a portfolio back in line with its target weights.
• Mass transaction capabilities: In volatile markets, advisers can quickly identify clients holding a specific product and execute a single buy/sell action across all accounts, ensuring no one is missed and execution stays consistent.

These tools go beyond saving time and help ensure fairness, consistency, and efficiency in portfolio execution. They become increasingly essential as advisers manage larger client books with more complex mandates.

Glory Lau, General Manager of Platform Services (HK) at iFAST, shared that in this digital age, financial advisers expect more than just a transaction portal. They require a platform that truly understands their pain points, especially when it comes to managing multiple portfolios efficiently, such as the iFAST discretionary portfolio management tools.

Glory added,

“Our goal is to reduce duplicated work, streamline execution and support FAs as true portfolio managers. With iFAST handling the operational heavy lifting, advisers can focus on what they do best, which is providing advice and navigating the markets.”

As discretionary portfolios grow in Asia, advisers must rethink managing portfolios at
scale. The focus is moving from adopting model portfolios to managing them without operational drag.

Digital tools for rebalancing, mass transactions, and portfolio tracking are essential for staying competitive amid rising client expectations, compliance, and market volatility.

With over 25 years’ experience serving 14,000+ financial advisers, iFAST understands these challenges. Its new iFAST discretionary portfolio management tools help advisers scale efficiently, streamline execution, and focus on delivering great advice.

Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Hong Kong, based on image by iFAST