Putnam Launches 7 SMAs: Portfolio Products

Putnam Investments introduced seven equity model-based separately managed accounts and expects to enter the multi-asset model portfolio category by year-end with six offerings, it said Monday.

The SMAs have investment management fees ranging from 30-40 basis points, according to Carlo Forcione, director of product strategy and development at Putnam.

“Fundamentally, this program is about leveraging and extending core capabilities across multiple vehicle wrappers to meet the diverse needs of our clients,” he told ThinkAdvisor, explaining: “We believe our solutions, which are based on existing high-performing investment capabilities, will present differentiated risk-return characteristics in a modern, client-friendly structure.”

The recently launched model SMAs developed by Putnam include: U.S. Large Cap Value Equity, U.S. Large Cap Growth Equity, U.S. Multi-Cap Core Equity, Sustainable Leaders, Sustainable Future, U.S. Small Cap Growth Equity and International Durable Equity (ADR only).

The model portfolios planned for later this year “will use a systematic investing approach” and be made up of Putnam’s active mutual funds and third-party exchange-traded funds, it said, adding the portfolios will largely be benchmarked to custom multi-asset portfolio benchmarks. Each model portfolio will have a different risk profile as a result of the split between equities and fixed income, with increasing levels of equities in increments of 20%, it said, noting active investments will represent about half of each portfolio.

Frost Investment Advisors Expands to Bonds Outside U.S.

Frost Investment Advisors launched a Global Bond Fund that includes select corporate bonds from outside the U.S.

The Global Bond Fund is the Frost Bank subsidiary’s first fund composed mainly of non-U.S. dollar bonds, and builds on the Frost team’s many years of experience in the bond markets that includes its core Total Return Bond fund, the firm said.

Because the U.S. bond market makes up less than 50% of the total global bond market and investors usually want some allocation in non-U.S. markets, the company saw this as a good time for the fund’s launch, it said.

Initially, the fund — which “uses the same management philosophy” as the Total Return Bond Fund — has been including bonds only from the U.S., Canada and Mexico, Jeffery Elswick, director of fixed income at Frost Investment Advisors, told ThinkAdvisor. “But we’ll obviously start to diversify quite quickly, when the fund starts to grow in the next … month or so,” he said, adding: “The first major exposure outside of North America we’ll take is in Europe” soon and Frost “will stick to what we do well,” including commercial mortgages. After that, the company is targeting Japan in probably the first half of 2020 and then Australia and maybe New Zealand, he said.

The Global Bond Fund received regulatory approval in October and started trading soon after that in three share classes: Institutional (FRGIX, with fees of about 125 basis points now but expected to decline quickly to 70 basis points), investor (FRVGX, with fees of about 25 basis points) and A/retail shares (FRAVX, about 250 basis points).

Envestnet MoneyGuide Joins AI Labs Platform

Envestnet MoneyGuide joined the Advisor Innovation Labs platform in a move that Envestnet said was designed to expand its services and reach to more advisors across the industry that are within the A.I. Labs ecosystem.

The integration enables A.I. Labs clients to access MoneyGuide tools via a single portal, making Envestnet’s financial planning software “more readily available and accessible to clients,” Envestnet said.

With the integration, advisors have “control over the view they share with clients,” according to Tony Leal, Envestnet MoneyGuide president. ”Whether it is MyBlocks, the PlayZone” or a full financial plan, the advisor “drives how much to share,” he said in a statement.

Brinker Capital was one of the first investment management firms to provide advisors and their clients with this integration, with its recently launched One Wealth Life platform.

Separately, Envestnet Tamarac started its integration with Flyer, a provider of trading tools and infrastructure for the wealth management industry. The integrated software solution is designed for advisors looking to “enhance trading capabilities and streamline operations,” the companies said. The partnership gives advisors an advanced solution for trading equities, ETFs, mutual funds and other asset classes, while accessing broker trading algorithms to connect brokers and allocate trades, they said.

WisdomTree Teams With Voya on New Actively Managed Fund

WisdomTree teamed with Voya Investment Management to launch an actively managed Mortgage Plus Bond Fund on the NYSE Arca.

The WisdomTree Mortgage Plus Bond Fund (MTGP) is an ETF that’s being subadvised by Voya and has a net expense ratio of 45 basis points, according to the fund’s website.

MTGP “offers investors the opportunity to: “generate income and capital appreciation potential; diversify their portfolios and reduce interest-rate risk; [and] benefit from active management,” WisdomTree says at the site.

Defiance Next Gen Food & Sustainability ETF Starts Trading

New York-based Defiance ETFs launched The Defiance Next Gen Food and Agriculture ETF (DIET) with a net expense ratio of 30 basis points that’s being distributed by Quasar Distributors.

The DIET ETF gives exposure to companies that are focused on technologies including alternative plant-based sources of meat, such as Beyond Meat, seed modification, sustainable farming and irrigation techniques, Defiance said.

DIET provides investors with “liquid, transparent and low-cost access to globally listed stocks, across all market capitalizations, and tracks the BlueStar Food and Agriculture Sustainability Index,” Defiance said.

Last year, the company introduced the Defiance Future Tech ETF (AUGR) that was targeted at investors seeking to capitalize on the growing opportunities in augmented reality and virtual reality technology. AUGR was rebranded to VIDG, a video gaming and esports ETF this past summer.

Cambridge Releases CLIC Advisor and Client

Cambridge Investment Group made CLIC Advisor and CLIC Client available to about 3,000 independent financial professionals, it announced.

CLIC Advisor is an extension of Cambridge’s CLIC digital workstation for independent financial professionals, while CLIC Client is an investor center for clients of financial professionals. CLIC Advisor and CLIC Client “reflect mainstream digital integrations through innovative partnerships with key fintech providers across the industry,” the company said.

Cambridge has now made CLIC Advisor and CLIC Client available to most financial professionals with the firm, following months of planning, testing and working with feedback from a beta user group of 200 financial professionals, it said. Beta user group input from financial professionals was “invaluable as Cambridge worked to provide customized support of a wide variety of business models and financial professional needs, including householding, split codes, and eliminating duplicate entry,” it said. The firm is “looking forward to additional input as it continues to enhance digital solutions in a new era of technology for financial professionals,” it added.

About 400 financial professionals who currently have an eMoney subscription will be part of a data migration process that Cambridge said “will allow them to transfer their current data into CLIC Advisor.” Cambridge is planning for migration testing in the fourth quarter this year, it said.

ProShares Expands Dividend Growth ETF Lineup

ProShares added two new ETFs to its dividend growth suite of offerings, one focusing on U.S. technology and the other on the Russell 3000 Dividend Elite Index.

The new ETFs are the ProShares S&P Technology Dividend Aristocrats ETF (TDV, with an expense ratio of 0.45%) and ProShares Russell U.S. Dividend Growers ETF (TMDV, 0.35%).

ProShares now has eight ETFs — including its flagship fund NOBL — and it had more than $7 billion in assets under management as of Nov. 6, it said. The expansion of the lineup “reflects ProShares’ belief in the value of dividend growth strategies for long-term investors,” it said. All the ETFs are listed on the Cboe BZX Exchange.

Janney Montgomery Scott Teams With iCapital Network

Janney Montgomery Scott is using iCapital Network’s platform technology as a white-label solution designed to “enhance the alternative investment capabilities” on Janney’s platform, the companies said.

Via the partnership, Janney’s financial advisors gain access to iCapital’s curated online menu of private equity and hedge fund offerings that provide the ability to “seamlessly incorporate these investments into client portfolios,” the firms said.

Within the fund menu, the iCapital Research and Due Diligence Team provides a wide variety of diverse alternative investment offerings to help achieve desired client outcomes of growth, income and portfolio diversification, the companies said. iCapital will also offer educational and detailed product support to Janney’s advisors.

The new partnership “substantially enhances Janney’s alternative investment offering,” according to Kevin Reed, head of wealth management at Janney. The “broadening of Janney’s alternatives platform will immediately strengthen our ability to deliver a more comprehensive set of solutions to our clients,” he said in a statement.

Informa Introduces Direct Connect Data Service Solutions

Informa Financial Intelligence launched Direct Connect Data Service solutions that the firm said “leverages” Informa’s banking intelligence to “integrate data seamlessly into subscribers’ systems and processes for quicker evidence-based business decisions.”

The service will enable users to “validate data and understand market landscapes, gain insights and visualize results, acquire data and make it available for collaborative use across internal business partners and organizations, and replace manual data export and maintenance,” according to the company.

Featuring customizable settings, the service “strategically informs each user on how to meet and exceed their business goals and objectives, including how to reconcile price positions and strategies,” Informa said.

Users can access Direct Connect Data through Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerBI, Tableau and a variety of additional reporting systems, according to Informa.

REX Shares, Bank of Montreal Partner on New ETNs

REX Shares and Bank of Montreal added to their MicroSectors exchange-traded note lineup with 1x ETNs linked to the NYSE FANG+ Index.

The new ETNs complement the existing FANG+ ETNs that offer investors from +3x through ‐3x daily “resetting leveraged and inverse leveraged exposure,” the companies said. The NYSE FANG+ Index includes 10 liquid stocks that represent industry leaders across today’s technology and Internet/media companies, they noted.

REX originally launched the 3x/‐3x FANG+ products (FNGU & FNGD) last year “as an alternative to current tech leveraged trading products,” according to Scott Acheychek, its president. “As a result of their popularity, and with feedback from clients, we decided to expand our FANG+ product offering to include beta-1 or 1x products,” he said in a statement.

State Street Selected for Avantis Investors’ First ETFs

State Street was tapped by Avantis Investors to provide accounting, administration and other services for the latter firm’s first ETFs.

Avantis is a new division of American Century Investments and its initial ETFs include five low-cost offerings trading on the NYSE Arca: Avantis U.S. Equity ETF (AVUS, with an expense ratio of 0.15%), Avantis International Equity ETF (AVDE, 0.23%), Avantis Emerging Markets Equity ETF (AVEM, 0.33%), Avantis U.S. Small Cap Value ETF (AVUV, 0.25%) and Avantis International Small Cap Value ETF (AVDV, 0.36%).

The five ETFs got off to a “fast start, amassing more than $400 million in total assets” through Oct. 31, State Street said.

— Check out last week’s portfolio product roundup here: Fidelity Expands Thematic Lineup to 16 Funds: Portfolio Products.