Products April 22, 2021

Investment Product and Service Launches

Ubiquity Retirement + Savings makes ESG options available to 401(k) plans, and HSBC launches AI powered multi asset index.

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Art by Jackson Epstein

Art by Jackson Epstein

Ubiquity Retirement + Savings Makes ESG Options Available to 401(k) Plans

Ubiquity Retirement + Savings has added environmental, social and governance (ESG) fund options to its 401(k) offerings, allowing plan sponsors to incorporate socially responsible investments into their plan’s fund menus.

Ubiquity’s turnkey ESG investment lineup includes low-cost mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) from Vanguard and is currently available for participants in the firm’s Custom(k) and Reserve(k) plans.

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“Just like personal values, investment strategies are not one-size-fits all,” says Chad Parks, founder and CEO of Ubiquity. “With our new socially responsible investment portfolio, small business owners can empower employees with the opportunity to save for the future while applying their savings toward the causes they care about most.”

“Ultimately, it’s about the power of choice,” says Ashvin Prakash, Ubiquity’s director of product development. “Offering these options in 401(k)s will give small businesses everywhere a competitive edge and help promote plan participation.”

For more information, visit myubiquity.com.

HSBC Launches AI Powered Multi Asset Index

HSBC has launched the AI Powered Multi Asset Index (AiMAX), which it says is the first rules-based multi-asset investment strategy to use artificial intelligence (AI) as a method for constructing a diversified growth portfolio.

The introduction of AiMAX follows HSBC’s launch of AiPEX, an AI-powered stock index family using IBM Watson. HSBC says that since going live on August 9, 2019, the AiPEX Total Return Index (AIPEXTR) has outperformed the S&P 500 Total Return Index by 4.79 percentage points.

AiMAX was developed in collaboration with EquBot, an asset manager that developed an AI-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) and uses IBM Watson Discovery to retrieve and analyze millions of data points, from both traditional sources such as financial statements and non-traditional sources such as social media posts.

By building intuition and experience from historical information, and continuously learning as new information becomes available, AiMAX constructs a diversified portfolio of assets whose prices are poised for growth. AiMAX invests across 15 asset classes, spanning five investable asset types (developed equities, developed bonds, emerging markets, real assets and inflation assets) and a cash index.

“This is a new approach to multi-asset investing that combines cutting edge AI techniques and a time-tested diversification strategy to balance risk and return,” says David Odenath, head of quantitative investment solutions, Americas at HSBC Global Banking and Markets. “By using AI and big data to improve the accuracy of our capital markets assumptions, we are able to deliver a next generation asset allocation strategy to our clients.”
Deals & People April 22, 2021

Introducing WIPN — WE Inspire. Promote. Network.

A year or so ago, WiPN leadership was looking at how much it had evolved and realized ‘we needed the name to catch up to where we are,’ said President Jennifer Norr.

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Today, the Women in Pensions Network (WiPN) announced its rebranding, to now be known as WIPN — WE Inspire. Promote. Network. 

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WIPN also adopted a new mission statement along with the rebranding. The organization now says, “We:

  • Inspire each other to achieve our professional goals and personal aspirations through a national network of local chapters.
  • Promote diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the retirement industry.
  • Network to share our knowledge and experience, informed by research.”

A year or so ago, the organization leadership was looking at how much it had evolved, says WIPN President Jennifer Norr, and realized that although it had originally been about networking, the organization’s mission had become “networking plus,” which includes developing proprietary research and content, as well as creating mentoring relationships and career development support. “We needed the name to catch up to where we are,” she told PLANADVISER.

“We opted to retain the WIPN name because the brand has become synonymous with empowering women in the retirement industry, and we look forward to continuing to build on this foundation,” she said. However, she noted the elimination of the word pensions from the name comes as a way to show that the organization welcomes all business models in retirement, including defined contribution investment only (DCIO) firms, recordkeepers, third-party administrators (TPAs), advisers and more.

“Pensions wasn’t representative of the membership we have,” Norr said. “At a high level, it is a very diverse group of roles across the industry.” The group has more than 5,500 subscribers in the retirement industry with more than 1,450 members and 32 regional chapters.

The new brand, which was developed with Princeton Marketing, will be unveiled on LinkedIn Live today and then introduced to the chapters, Norr said.

Although the brand will continue to focus on women, removing women from the name also reflects the importance of male allies and the need to ask men to engage. “We know that many of our women members have great male mentors and sponsors,” Norr said. “We need to continue that; we can’t do it alone.”

Promotion of equity and diversity is also an important focus moving forward, Norr noted. “We have an additional responsibility to reach back and carry forward, to champion and support each other.”

“As we evolved the WIPN brand, it was important to ensure that we were being a champion for diversity, equity and inclusion within our industry by advocating for opportunities for women of color and the LGBTQ+ community,” said Jen Mulrooney, WIPN marketing chair.

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