A unified managed account holds several investment strategies — models, separately managed accounts, and funds — inside a single client account with one set of statements and coordinated management across the whole thing.
A client with three strategies in three separate accounts has three statements, three billing arrangements, and three managers who cannot see each other's positions.
Without a shared view, one strategy can buy what another is selling, and tax-loss harvesting in one can be undone by a purchase in another.
A UMA has an overlay layer that sees all sleeves at once. That makes household-level tax management possible and prevents the strategies working against each other.
An additional layer of fee for the overlay, and less autonomy for each individual manager, whose decisions may be modified for reasons at the household level.
When there are genuinely multiple strategies, meaningful assets, and a taxable account where coordination has something to work with. For a single strategy in a retirement account it adds cost and complexity with nothing to coordinate.
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Separately managed account →