Products & Services June 27, 2024

Product & Service Launches – 6/27/24

John Hancock launches multi asset credit fund with Manulife; Morgan Stanley Wealth adds suite of generative AI tools; Avantis offers a new small cap equity fund; and more.

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John Hancock Launches Multi Asset Credit Fund with Manulife

John Hancock Investment Management announced it has launched the John Hancock Multi Asset Credit Fund with its affiliated investment manager Manulife, a London-based multi-sector alternative credit specialist.

The fund will invest in multi-asset credit strategies and fixed-income asset classes, including sub-investment-grade assets with potentially less risk and volatility of high-yield assets, such as loans and high-yield bonds, asset-backed securities, regulatory capital and convertible bonds. Risk management, through diversification and minimizing the risk of default is an integral part of the investment process, according to John Hancock.

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“We’re thrilled to showcase the investment expertise at Manulife | CQS Investment Management across the credit space,” said Kristie Feinberg, head of U.S. and Europe, Manulife Investment Management, and president and CEO of John Hancock Investment Management. “By leveraging our expanded capabilities with the addition of the CQS team, we bring a semi-liquid alternative fund to advisors in an asset class that has seen recent growth in demand and may help their clients achieve their financial goals.”

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Adds to Suite of Generative AI Tools

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management announced a new AI @ Morgan Stanley tool—an OpenAI-powered product that, with client consent, generates notes on a financial adviser’s behalf in client meetings and surfaces action items.

After a meeting, the artificial intellignce summarizes key points, creates an email for an adviser to edit and send at their discretion and saves a note into Salesforce.

The new tool, AI @ Morgan Stanley Debrief, comes after Morgan Stanley announced its relationship with OpenAI as its wealth management strategic partner in March 2023 and fully rolled out the AI @ Morgan Stanley Assistance in September 2023—a generative AI-powered chatbot offering financial advisers quick access to all of Morgan Stanley’s intellectual capital.

To date, 98% of adviser teams have adopted the assistant, according to the firm.

Avantis Offers U.S. Small Cap Equity Fund

Avantis Investors is expanding its investment capabilities with the launch of a new mutual fund, Avantis U.S. Small Cap Equity Fund (AVSCX).

The fund invests primarily in a diverse group of U.S. small-cap companies across market sectors and industry groups. The fund seeks securities of companies that it expects to have higher returns by placing an emphasis on securities of companies with smaller marker capitalizations and securities of companies with higher profitability and value characteristics. It has an expense ratio of 0.25%.

The fund will be co-managed by chief investment officer Eduardo Repetto, senior portfolio managers Mitchell Firestein, Daniel Ong, CFA and Ted Randall and portfolio manager Matthew Dubin. The U.S. Small Cap Equity Fund  joins Avantis’ lineup of ETFs and mutual funds spanning equities, fixed income and real estate.

MyVest, Income Discovery Launch Retirement Income Solutions

MyVest, a provider of enterprise wealth management technology, has partnered with Income Discovery, a retirement income platform, to enable personalized, “tax-smart” withdrawals for retirement income with the goal of building a more effective bridge between retirement planning and education.

The integrated solution provides advisers with a view into retiree household finances and tax-optimized planning features to explore systematic withdrawal recommendations, according to the firms. It also offers the ability to execute those withdrawals through tax-efficient trade order generation, in bulk across the client base, if necessary, all through an integrated experience.

A bi-directional data connection allows advisers to monitor and manage client retirement plans, ensuring they remain on track and adaptable to changing circumstances.

“MyVest is delighted to embark on this journey with Income Discovery, marking the first step in a roadmap designed to move retirement income from planning to action,” said Anton Honikman, CEO of MyVest, in a press release. “By leveraging our complementary strengths in tax-managed personalization, we are bringing retirement income to life and providing firms with the opportunity to differentiate their practices.”

Deals & People June 27, 2024

OneDigital Promotes Bailey to Grow Northeast

Emily Bailey will oversee the New York to Maine region with an eye to build on the team’s roughly 400-person footprint.

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OneDigital announced this week that Emily Bailey will be taking the regional managing principal position for the Northeast to continue expanding the aggregator’s footprint both organically and through acquisitions and partnerships.

Bailey, who had most recently been managing principal for Connecticut, was chosen after an internal and external search, and will start in the new role July 1. She will replace Brian Driscoll, who retired in April after over a decade in the role.

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Bailey, an employee benefits and health specialist, joined OneDigital almost a decade ago when the digital benefits advisory she joined out of college was acquired by the aggregator. She has in recent years spearheaded further growth for the firm, overseeing the acquisition of three new teams since 2020.

Emily Bailey

She says future acquisitions will be focused on the wealth management and financial planning space as the demand grows from clients to provide advisement services to participants.

“We’ll be building in the Northeast through more investments and acquisitions to better prepare our teams to have those conversations [with participants],” she says. “I would expect over the next three to five years some very large investments to grow in the region.”

She notes that, as the benefits industry has evolved, employers are looking for holistic services that can guide workers through life moments such as “having their first child, buying a home, getting ready for retirement and all the different areas that now as a business we’re getting to help humans through.”

OneDigital has been making steady acquisitions in recent years across retirement, wealth and insurance, bringing its current size to 200 offices overseeing more than $100 billion in client assets.

Bailey says the acquisition focus will be on firms that can add talent to her team, but also embrace a “growth organization” that is continuing to build and evolve.

“We want to make sure that the teams that we bring on will really embrace being on the OneDigital team,” she says. “We need people around the table who will help us build things and have an entrepreneurial heart.”

In her new role, Bailey will report to Chief Operating Officer Bill Carew and oversee about 30 offices and just under 400 employees across Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.

When asked about an evolving retirement landscape in which recordkeepers and other players are also seeking to work with participants, Bailey says the future of the space will take partnership to meet demand.

“We are helping businesses, but we are also helping the human and the person that is attached to those businesses,” she says. “That has been really exciting to me and the growth path that we’ve been on.” 

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