ACR Taps Grayson as COO

ACR-Alpine Capital Research has hired industry veteran Darryl S. Grayson as chief operating officer and national marketing director.

According to an announcement, Grayson will oversee the firm’s marketing and sales efforts to the financial intermediary and institutional channels, and will expand the firm’s distribution relationships with national and regional brokerage firms, independent financial advisers, and registered investment advisers. He will also target retirement plan sponsors, consultants, foundations, endowments, and the pension fund community.

He joins ACR from Wilmington Trust, where he was director of External Distribution for the firm’s asset management division, which oversaw $35 billion in assets under management. He was responsible for relationship management, sales, and product distribution for the Wilmington Funds and SMA strategies.

Previously, he was SVP and national sales manager for Gabelli Asset Management, where he directed the distribution activities of the $11-billion mutual fund complex. He has also held sales executive positions at Delaware Investments, Bankers Trust, and OppenheimerFunds, according to the announcement.

ACR is a division of asset management firm Alpine Investment Management, LLC.

Folio Institutional and ABG Carolinas Introduce Folio(k)

Folio Institutional and Alliance Benefit Group Carolinas have teamed up to offer Folio(k).

The platform is a turn-key 401(k) solution—including custody, trading, recordkeeping, and administration—and is available for a fee of 95 basis points.

Plan sponsors and their advisers can make their primary investment choices from a set of various risk-adjustable, Target Date Folios, which are pre-designed portfolios of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). According to an announcement, the Target Date Folios reflect a far broader level of diversification than traditional target-date funds, investing in international equities, commodities, and TIPS, in addition to traditional domestic equities and fixed income.

The Target Date Folios are created with varying risk levels, including conservative, moderate, and aggressive.

Advisers may periodically rebalance account holdings and have the option of using Folio(k)’s updated model portfolio data as a resource. They can rebalance, add or delete securities, or change the weightings across all accounts with one click. An entire basket of securities can be traded in one transaction with no commissions, transaction fees, or ticket charges.

Fees covering all trading, custody, recordkeeping, compliance, and administrative functions total 70 basis points, and with the addition of the ETF expense ratios, the total cost is less than 1% of plan assets (approximately 95 basis points), according the firm.

ABG Carolinas is providing all administration and recordkeeping for Folio(k). The program operates 100% online; participant enrollment, statements, investment requests, employer reports, and materials are all delivered over the Internet.


More information is available at www.folioinstitutional.com/foliok/advisors.jsp.

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