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Some of the most asked questions we receive at MDA Guru are around clarifying the investment management features of IMA’s versus SMA’s. We asked Brian Nash of Merlea Investments to help explain what the differences are and how they can affect your practice. Before deciding on embarking into the managed accounts world we highly recommend advisers understand these differences.

A bit over a year ago ASIC issued ASIC Corporations (Managed Discretionary Account Services) Instrument 2016/968 and Regulatory Guide 179 which regulates the conditions under which managed discretionary account services (MDA services) can be provided.

What is the difference between all these confusing acronyms we hear when investigating managed account solutions?

The difference, once you strip out the common letters "M" for “managed” and "A" for “account” are the following;