Regional bank turns to FolioDynamix and Smartleaf for connectivity, overlay. BB&T's Wealth Management division wants to attract more high-net-worth assets with an investment offering that gives clients an overview of their investment strategy and streamline account administration so that its portfolio managers can monitor all facets of their clients' portfolio, including asset allocation based on investment preferences and tax-implication management. In short, the bank is selling unified managed accounts (UMAs).

UMAs are single-account investment products that feature combinations of separately managed accounts (SMAs), mutual funds, alternatives and ETFs. They're expected to hit the $327-billion in assets mark by 2013, representing a compound annual growth rate of 35%, and surpassing separately managed accounts as the open-architecture retail account of choice for the U.S. market, according to a recent report from Celent, a Boston-based financial-market research firm.

And a bag of chips

BB&T's UMA, which features connectivity from third-party investment platform provider FolioDynamix and overlay-management technology provided by Smartleaf run through SunGard's WealthStation advisor desktop, has been in the marketplace for about six weeks.

Overlay management is the process of aligning trading activity, managing cash flow and enhancing the overall tax efficiency of UMAs and other manager-model portfolios.

"The UMA investment solution means our wealth advisors can become even stronger advocates for their clients," says BB&T's wealth-management chief David Fisher. "All of our investment recommendations are based on objective analysis and thorough due diligence, [and] our emphasis on objectivity and open architecture enables us to offer a broad selection of investment styles and draw on the expertise of world-class money managers to the advantage of our clients."

Adds Fisher: "By aligning our wealth clients' existing portfolios with our state-of-the-art process, we can now offer them an even more robust and diversified portfolio along with the same local control of investment decisions and transactions they've always enjoyed."

Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T's wealth-management division has more than $10 billion in assets under management. -FWR

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