AdvisorFlex program features picks by S&P and overlay by Lockwood Advisors. Clearing firm Pershing is out with something called Lockwood AdvisorFlex Portfolios, a unified managed account (UMA) program that gives advisors access to a selection of suggested investments or substitute pre-screened alternatives based on recommendations by Standard & Poor's Investment Advisory Services (SPIAS) and featuring investment review and oversight by Pershing's Lockwood affiliate.

UMAs are single-account portfolios that typically combine separately managed accounts, mutual funds and ETFs and provide unified reporting as well as tax-management and other customization capabilities.

Wide variety

AdvisorFlex is meant to put advisors in a position to offer clients portfolios "designed to meet a wide variety of investment objectives," according to a Pershing press release. The program's portfolios are diversified at the asset-class level and among security types.

"Today's advisors find themselves juggling the competing demands of prospecting for new business and providing day-to-day investment oversight for their clients' portfolios," says Jim Seuffert, CEO of Pershing's Managed Account Solutions (MAS) group. "AdvisorFlex offers our customers a highly disciplined portfolio-construction and management process that will help them maximize their productivity and grow their practices."

Pershing MAS takes in all of Pershing's fee-based advisory services. It includes Lockwood's turnkey and built-to-order managed account products and services as well as third-party offerings available on Pershing's Managed Account Network and Managed Account Direct platforms.

Jersey City, N.J.-based Pershing is a subsidiary of Bank of New York Mellon. -FWR

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