Inside the Citi, Advyzon Partnership to Deliver Unified Managed Accounts to Clients

 Is it bad to put all your eggs in one basket? Not in the world of modern wealth management. 

Citi Wealth and Advyzon announced a new partnership this week to build a unified managed account platform for Citi Wealth clients. The move reflects the broader trend of consolidating siloed investment processes into unified frameworks, allowing for easier account opening, billing, reporting and even tax management. Research from Advyzon and other UMA technology providers like SS&C Advent backs that assessment. 

Traditionally, custom portfolios were built and managed account by account, making them highly personalized, but manually intensive (not to mention cost prohibitive for smaller accounts). Today, firms across the industry are redesigning their operating models around unified portfolio architecture, and UMAs sit at the center of it all.

All Together Now 

Citi Wealth’s UMA program certainly has a lot to offer, according to the announcement, including multi-currency capabilities and access to both traditional and alternative investments. In addition, clients can access both onshore and offshore investment structures and the firm’s home office portfolios. The firm said Advyzon was selected following a “thorough and competitive search” to identify a strategic partner, citing its artificial intelligence-enabled, multi-jurisdictional turnkey asset management program as a key differentiator. 

Marc Turansky, head of investment advisory programs for Citi Wealth, noted that news coverage of UMAs and SMAs often focuses on the way the technology empowers tax-aware investing and opens access to interesting asset classes across public and private markets. That’s critical, but equally important is the ability of the technology to provide an easier account opening and client onboarding process. 

“[This] is crucial for both the financial advisor/banker and their client,” Turansky told Advisor Upside. “The new Citi Wealth Global UMA is built around … one agreement and one fee to the client that clearly lays out what each of the components to the fee are for” and to whom they are paid.

Taken together, Turansky said, the attractive features of UMAs are gaining considerable attention from both industry stakeholders and clients alike, especially the tax efficiency and transparency. Research published last year by Cerulli Associates underscores the impressive growth: 

• Total net flows into managed account programs were $811.8 billion in 2024, reaching their second-highest level ever. 
• UMA programs experienced the highest net flows that year ($257.7 billion), followed by separate managed account programs ($218.4 billion).

Join the Party. Citi and Advyzon are far from the only firms investing in UMA technology expansion. Others include Orion, Edward Jones, 55ip, Envestnet and many more that are utilizing technology to “democratize” access to UMAs for clients with lesser wealth. So, what was once an investment approach reserved for the wealthiest clients is now being made available to the mass affluent.