SEI Reduces Managed Accounts Programme Fees, Doubles Manager Line-Up

Eliane Chavagnon

2 February 2012

SEI, the US-based wealth management and technology firm, has revamped its managed accounts programme by reducing costs and increasing the number of its managers from 24 to 48.

As a result of the revamp, the new cost structure for the programme has been cut by 15 per cent on average - which puts it five per cent below the average within Morningstar’s managed account category, the firm said.

The programme's managers provide a range of mandates, including dividend focus, managed volatility, preferred stocks and alternatives.

Meanwhile, SEI has also enhanced its investment approaches, offering a tax-efficient option to boost savings by means of processing trades via a tax overlay manager structure. This involves managing the impact of taxes, with the intention of decreasing overall tax exposure and providing greater post-tax returns.

As part of the new structure, the overlay manager sells those stocks with the highest tax cost first, “opportunistically harvesting losses,” and “deferring recognition of taxable gains where possible” in order to produce greater savings, the firm said.