Speaking at the Financial Standard's 2009 Managed Accounts seminar yesterday, van Eyk's national manager Michael Angwin said adviser demand has prompted the group to look at rating SMAs.
He stressed that they are still in discussion and development stages but that they would look to rate SMAs the way they would rate unit trust managers - by primarily looking at the skillset of the underlying portfolio manager to meet performance targets.
Angwin said that broadly speaking, he expects SMA managers would be considered the same way as fund managers where products would compete based on people, process and business management.
Besides van Eyk, ratings firms S&P, Morningstar, Lonsec and Aegis are also developing their own SMA rating methodologies.
The first series of SMAs that van Eyk would look to review are those that specialise in Australian equities.
This year's Financial Standard Managed Accounts seminar was held in association with the Institute of Managed Account Providers (IMAP), the industry body in Australia.
Michelle Baltazar