Managed accounts, which are professionally managed portfolios of individual securities, offer some of the convenience of mutual fund investing with additional benefits, including direct ownership of the securities that make up your portfolio and the opportunity for some portfolio customization and individual tax planning. Each managed account has a specific objective, which guides the manager in assembling the account’s portfolio.
Once available to only high-net-worth clients and institutional investors, managed accounts are becoming increasingly accessible to a wider range of investors as the amount required to purchase them continues to drop. They’re typically sold as part of a fee-based brokerage account or as one of the alternatives in an employer sponsored retirement savings plan and can be a convenient way to diversify more broadly.
There are also multi-manager accounts that include a number of different asset classes and investment styles as well as mutual fund managed accounts, which own a variety of mutual funds.
