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A simple SMA analytics tool for financial advisers

Zephyr Associates provides free access to its SMA analytics database through new tool

February 8, 2011 2:18 pm ET

Zephyr Associates Inc., probably best known to advisers for its StyleAdvisor and AllocationAdvisor products, is now providing a free peek at separately managed accounts performance analytics.

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Financial advisers working with separately managed accounts or who are involved in their selection already have quite a few places to turn to for analytics information.

A handful of big names would include tools from Morningstar Inc., Lipper (part of Thomson Reuters), and Standard & Poor's among others.

This tool is meant to be a quick check on an SMA, think of it more like a desktop calculator program. Sure, from a marketing perspective it is meant (I believe) to whet the adviser's appetite for Zephyr's far more sophisticated and comprehensive products (mentioned in the first sentence).

According to Brandi Meeks, team leader for marketing and client administration at Zephyr Associates Inc. some of the larger, more well-known contributors to the Zephyr SMA database include Calamos Asset Management Inc., AllianceBernstein, Allianz Global Investors, BlackRock Investments, Robeco Investment Management, John Hancock Funds, Fred Alger Company and Polen Capital Management.

A brief hands

The Zephyr tool was built in HTML 5 so that it can be very interactive right there on the page without relying on other technology like Flash or JavaScript.

In the upper left corner of their home page (styleadvisor.com) visitors will find an orange “Try Zephyr Analytics” arrow.

Just to the right of this is a “search for an SMA” box where an adviser can start typing the name which will bring up a pre-populated list (I suggested they perhaps add a drop-down menu of the database offerings to make things a bit simpler for SMA neophytes (like myself) and they are considering this for a future update).

You can also adjust the benchmarks and time range by clicking on the “settings” tab to the left (see the slideshow).

Once you have completed these just hit the magnifying glass search button and up opens a separate page in a few seconds.

This will then generate about a dozen boxes containing charts (parameters, performance, cumulative excess returns, allocation, “managers versus universe: returns”), fact sheets, product information and metrics (R-squared and information ratio).

For more information and to test out the analytics visit Zephyr Associates online.

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