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.
