Envision Financial Systems and U.S. Bancorp Fund Services launched a new mutual fund account servicing platform, FundKeeper.
According to Brian Jones, executive vice president of Envision, "by combining Quasar Distributors mutual fund trading, U.S. Bancorp Fund Services back-office operations, and Envision's PowerAgent technology, the collaboration between our firms can transform intermediaries' ability to support the mutual-fund only investor. Our goal with FundKeeper has been to solve the longstanding business problems faced by many financial intermediaries as they struggle with hassle, expense or both when managing mutual fund accounts."
FundKeeper offers a lower cost solution for mutual-fund only investors that eliminates unneeded wirehouse brokerage system capabilities and associated brokerage fees.
It also enhances financial intermediary firms' control with the ability to select the funds their representatives have access to, set up parameters to determine investor suitability, leverage automated breakpoint calculations, and gain easy access to position and activity data.
FundKeeper provides access to more than 16,000 funds with a largely electronic mutual fund experience, allowing financial intermediary firms to enhance upfront compliance and eliminate the need for back-end consolidation of their clients' mutual fund holdings. This can help them comply with the Labor Department's fiduciary rule and help increase customer satisfaction.
The platform's first clients are CUSO Financial Services (CFS) and Sorrento Pacific Financial (SPF), partner broker-dealers and registered investment advisors with more than 500 registered representatives nationwide. CFS and SPF went live with the FundKeeper platform in August, having fully integrated FundKeeper into their existing systems.
"We're proud to be the first firm to customize and integrate FundKeeper into our existing systems because it is an efficient, cost-saving option that is both advisor and client friendly. Our investment programs appreciate that it's an easy, transparent and compliant platform for processing and managing their clients' mutual fund accounts," Valorie Seyfert, president and CEO of CFS/SPF, said in a statement.
Hartford Funds Adds to Active Bond ETF Lineup
Hartford Funds announced the listing of its third actively managed fixed income exchange-traded fund, the Hartford Total Return Bond ETF (HTRB).
Sub-advised by Wellington Management Co., this actively managed ETF delivers a core fixed income strategy and adds to a growing and comprehensive suite of investing tools for financial advisors and their clients.
HTRB provides investors with an actively managed core bond strategy that invests in U.S. government and corporate bonds, asset-backed securities, mortgage-backed securities and foreign-issued securities. The strategy seeks to deliver a competitive total return with income as a secondary objective. HTRB has a total expense ratio of 0.39%.
NuShares Adds U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF to Its ESG Suite
Nuveen launched the NuShares ESG U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (NUBD), a new ETF designed to offer exposure to the U.S. investment-grade, taxable fixed income market while adhering to certain environmental, social and governance principles.
