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State Street and Pimco Team Up in Launch of Cloud-Based Asset Platform: Tech Roundup

By Jeff Berman

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State Street and Pimco are among the companies that have founded HUB, a new, technology-led company that is building a cloud-based asset management operating platform.

The other founders of HUB are active investment management firm Man Group, IHS Markit, Microsoft and McKinsey & Co.

HUB has selected Microsoft as its technology platform provider to “empower HUB to develop” its asset management operating platform on Microsoft Azure cloud, the companies said Thursday.

The HUB greenfield platform “will be built by asset managers to transform the industry’s operating model by providing flexible and modular solutions across middle and back office functions, all while reducing cost and mitigating risks,” they said.

The platform is being designed to “accelerate the move to a digital operating model enabling asset managers to deliver innovative solutions to their clients both now and in the future,” they added.

HUB will use a “data-first approach” the companies say will “break down silos and friction between systems and data.”

Franklin Templeton Partners With Vestwell

Franklin Templeton has teamed with digital recordkeeping platform Vestwell to build a managed account experience that the companies said Wednesday would “reset the bar on how advisors engage with clients.”

The managed account solution allows plan sponsors to rethink their default option by choosing a dynamic investment model for each employee, rather than a traditional single target-date series.

The new initiative combines Franklin Templeton’s proprietary Goals Optimization Engine methodology with Vestwell’s recordkeeping infrastructure to create a fully digital, open-architecture and cost-effective managed account solution, the firms said in a joint announcement.

The offering will be available natively within Vestwell’s platform, providing the ability to automatically enroll participants into a personalized investment strategy, the companies said.

“By architecting it directly into Vestwell’s platform, Vestwell can capture data that provides participants a more personalized investment experience at each stage of their retirement journey,” the companies explained.

“With a completely open-architecture fund universe and a dynamic qualified default investment alternative (QDIA) capability, advisors can craft their own unique investment programs to provide fiduciary advice while leveraging a modern fintech platform to effectively scale,” they said.

The offering is in “late-stage development, with an expected rollout in the first half of 2021,” the companies said. At that time, advisors will be able to leverage Vestwell’s unbundled, open-architected, configurable platform to deliver their own white-labeled 401(k) with an integrated advisor managed account solution.

Envestnet | PMC Enhances Tax Overlay Offering

Envestnet | PMC has rolled out an update to its Tax Overlay Services offering that enables financial advisors to apply customized, ongoing tax-optimization approaches to most client assets within a unified managed account.

The enhancement significantly increases the assets eligible to be diversified out of low-cost-basis shares, the company said.

“Investors file their taxes once a year, but taxes should be managed throughout the year,” according to Erik Preus, managing director of Envestnet | PMC.

The company’s Tax Overlay Services “make it possible for advisors to holistically manage most or all of a client’s assets in a tax-smart manner throughout the year, with the goal of addressing that client’s tax concerns and capital-gains tax budget across the portfolio,” he explained.

North Reef Picks SS&C Solution

Long/short equity fund advisor North Reef Capital Management has selected the front-to-back office solution of SS&C Technologies to run its operations.

Explaining why North Reef selected SS&C, James H. Hanna, III, founder of North Reef, said: “We wanted to launch our fund advisory business with top-of-the-line institutional-grade infrastructure, and SS&C’s comprehensive solution delivered. With Eze Eclipse’s advanced front-office capabilities and SS&C’s… administration capabilities in one cost-effective package, we are well-positioned to run and grow our fund.”

SS&C’s front-to-back solution for emerging hedge funds includes a native-cloud, all-in-one execution, order and portfolio management and accounting platform powered by its Eze Eclipse technology, the companies said.

More than 80 emerging funds leverage the integration of SS&C’s Eze technology and fund administration services.

— Check out American Portfolios Boosts Offerings: Tech Roundup on ThinkAdvisor.

Jeff Berman