ImpactAssets slashed investment minimums on its private debt and equity investment options to $10,000 and flattened administrative fees to 0.40%.
The changes, which went into effect March 1, are designed to break down the barriers to deep impact investing for donors within the ImpactAssets Giving Fund, its donor advised fund.
In addition to dropping fees and minimums, ImpactAssets added two new private debt funds to it growing roster of investment solutions that open access to impact investments in ecoforestry, climate change solutions, sustainable food and agriculture, underserved small business owners, the growing middle class in emerging markets and more.
Ecotrust Forests III (EFIII) is a new long-term investment vehicle targeting commercial forestland in the western U.S. that have unique social and environmental attributes.
The other new fund is Community Investment Management (CIM), an institutional impact investment firm providing strategic debt capital to scale and demonstrate responsible innovation in lending to small businesses and underserved borrowers in the United States.
Northern Trust Strengthens Private Equity Audit via Blockchain Technology with PwC
Northern Trust, which launched the first commercial deployment of blockchain technology for private equity in February 2017 , announced that audit firms can now carry out audits of private equity lifecycle events directly from the blockchain.
The latest enhancement allows an audit firm to have its own blockchain node, providing access to relevant fund data to enable real-time audit capabilities.
Northern Trust, working with PwC and other audit firms in Guernsey, has proved that auditors can now access fund data held on the private equity blockchain to audit specific events.
This development gives audit firms access to a "golden copy," or immutable master record, of the fund's data from their own offices. Audit firms can then either transfer the required data into internal applications to complete the audit process or develop new tools that allow them to complete the audit directly from the blockchain itself.
Continuing development of the audit capabilities and the automation of the audit process by PwC will allow audits to be completed in real time as lifecycle events occur. This will help ensure that audits are more streamlined and efficient, increasing transparency of the underlying transactions to the audit firms.
AlphaCore Capital Launches New Wealthtech Tool
AlphaCore Capital launched factorE, a wealthtech tool built for intelligent investing.
Powered by machine learning, factorE uncovers the risks and exposures of multi-asset portfolios through visual simulations on a single, easy-to-use interface. AlphaCore designed factorE to help advisors, portfolio managers and analysts better understand the factors impacting today's diverse portfolios.
The factorE tool allows advisors to build and analyze portfolios with easy to digest visuals that instantly illustrate the risk factors of a portfolio and expose risks that previously may have been hidden.
factorE allows users to look at a variety of risk factors including equity, duration, momentum, value, and credit, along with alternative risk factors like trend following, illiquidity, and hedge fund crowding. This new tool augments more traditional returns-based analysis with machine learning capabilities, enabling users to handle traditional strategies alongside alternative strategies such as long/short equity, relative value, event driven, managed futures and option writing.
