UMAs: More than $300 billion by 2013

A new report by research and advisory firm Celent shows approximately $327 billion in client household assets will be managed through unified managed accounts by 2013. Of the firms surveyed, 75 percent expect UMAs to surpass SMAs as the "open architecture wealth management account of choice" for the U.S. market within five years.

"Unified managed accounts offer the best solution for managing the wealth of the high net worth and ultra-high net worth households in the US today," Robert J. Ellis, senior vice president of Celent's Wealth Management practice and co-author of the report, said in a press release. "The combination of open architecture and advanced technology is unsurpassed, whether one considers the UMA a product or an account. The UMA represents a highly customized solution that is easily managed from the advisor's desktop and yet is accessible remotely by the client for data and reports."