Products & Services November 21, 2024

Product & Service Launches – 11/21/24

AllianceBernstein launches direct indexing investment options; AssetMarket adds TIFIN AI capabilities for advisers; Oppenheimer partners with Pontera for client 401(k) management; and more.

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AllianceBernstein Offering Direct Index Investment Product

AllianceBernstein L.P. has launched the AB Tax Advantaged Balanced Direct Index portfolio, which combines equities and municipal bonds into a separately managed account.

The solution is designed to customize client tax situations and risk preferences for investors. That includes automated tax loss harvesting across stocks and bonds in addition to AB Intelligent Rebalancing, which seeks to reduce tax costs associated with rebalancing.

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The firm also launched the AB Tax Advantaged Equity Direct Index and the AB Tax Advantaged Strategic Research Balanced with Municipals, which are, respectively, equity-only direct indexing and tax-managed active multi-asset portfolios.

The firm’s portfolio management teams include Matthew Norton, Daryl Clements, Andrew Potter, Paul Robertson and John McLaughlin.

“We believe maximizing after-tax returns is critical for high-tax taxable investors,” AB’s head of separately managed accounts, Gavin Romm, said in a statement. “Through these solutions, we’re seeking to introduce the next generation of balanced investing with an innovative core portfolio and improved approach to rebalancing and systematic tax loss harvesting.”

AssetMark Adds TIFIN AI Capabilities for Advisers

Wealth management solutions provider AssetMark Inc. has expanded its relationship with TIFIN Sage, an artificial intelligence-powered investment platform, to incorporate TIFIN’s AI solutions into AssetMark’s investment consulting services.

The expanded relationship aims to help investment consultants rapidly gather insights, align advisory firm inputs and deliver personalized model portfolios with greater efficiency.

“TIFIN Sage’s AI technology helps us empower more advisor practices and drive client outcomes in a rapidly evolving wealth management landscape,” David McNatt, an executive vice president of investment solutions at AssetMark, said in a statement.

Pontera and Oppenheimer Partner To Incorporate Client 401(k)s

Oppenheimer & Co. will join the firms partnering with Pontera Solutions Inc. to manage clients’ workplace retirement accounts along with other assets.

The partnership will give Oppenheimer’s 928 financial advisers the ability to use Pontera to help manage clients’ 401(k) accounts; the firm has $129.8 billion in assets under administration.

“We believe the Pontera platform gives our advisers greater clarity into their clients’ full financial picture,” Bryan McKigney, Oppenheimer Asset Management’s president, said in a statement. “By enhancing our technology stack for financial advisers, we continue to deliver a superior client experience, helping them to implement their overall wealth management strategy.”

Pontera noted that its system is certified under information security standards SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001, designed to protect client data and prevent advisers from gaining direct access to their clients’ 401(k)s.

SEI Expands SMA Offerings in Equity and Fixed Income

SEI Investments Co. has launched a new lineup of separately managed account strategies through a program aimed at offering more equity and fixed-income investment options.

The additions include SEI-managed and third-party strategies from investment firms including AllianceBernstein, Loomis Sayles and Parametric Portfolio Associates.

SEI pointed out in the announcement that SMAs posted the strongest growth rate (24.4%) of any managed account product category in the last 12-month period, with both SMAs and unified managed accounts growing, according to data from Cerulli Associates.

“These new additions to our rapidly growing SMA and UMA solutions reinforce SEI’s ongoing commitment to enhancing the adviser experience with solutions that align with the complexities of modern wealth management,” Erich Holland, SEI’s executive managing director and head of adviser strategy and experience, said in a statement.

Compliance November 21, 2024

SEC Chair Gensler Announces January 20 Departure

Biden appointee Gensler will step down after a ‘robust rulemaking agenda’ as Republican leadership takes over the White House.

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Gary Gensler

Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler announced he will depart the post on January 20 as the administration of President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-majority Congress take over leadership.

Gensler was appointed by President Joe Biden, with the consent of the Senate, on April 17, 2021. During his first term, Trump appointed Wall Street attorney Jay Clayton to the post; Clayton has been announced as Trump’s pick to be U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

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During his tenure, Gensler became known for instituting a robust rulemaking and enforcement regime. His areas of focus that affected financial advisers included fiduciary conduct; off-channel communications; regulation best interest; environment, social and governance regulation; and close scrutiny of both cryptocurrency investing and adviser use of artificial intelligence.

Gensler also saw several high-profile market circumstances, taking over in the aftermath of the GameStop market surge and presiding over the reaction to the crash of Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency firm, FTX.

Although all SEC commissioners, including the chair, are appointed to five-year terms and may not be fired by the president, SEC chairs have typically resigned shortly after the presidency changes parties. That timeline has accelerated in recent years, as three of the last four changes of administration, going back to 1993, have seen the SEC’s chair resign on January 20. The fourth—Clayton—resigned in December 2020.

The chair received pushback from industry organizations and companies throughout his tenure, at times arguing the regulator was overreaching its mandate and at others that regulations were unnecessarily crimping the financial industry.

Earlier this week, the Investment Company institute urged the SEC to pause its current compliance deadlines for recent rules and to suspend any pending proposals. The organization representing investment firms and asset managers argued that instituting any regulations ahead of the new administration and Congress would only complicate things ahead of likely changes.

The SEC disagreed in a response, noting that “we have different clients than the ICI,” referring to American investors and issurers.

In the announcement of Gensler’s departure, the SEC called out work done in the U.S. Treasury markets to “lower cost and risk,” as well as the $55 trillion U.S. equity market.

“The agency unanimously made updates to the National Market System so that stocks can be traded more efficiently with narrower spreads and lower fees,” the SEC wrote. “Improvements also include shortening the settlement cycle to one day, which is good for investors and lowers risk in the market. Further, the agency unanimously adopted rules to update information regarding brokers’ execution quality.”

The regulator also noted that its Divisions of Enforcement and Examinations, which comprise half the organization, filed more than 2,700 enforcement actions, which resulted in about $21 billion in penalties and disgorgement orders. It also recouped $2.7 billion for harmed investors between fiscal years 2021 and 2024.

“The staff and the Commission are deeply mission-driven, focused on protecting investors, facilitating capital formation, and ensuring that the markets work for investors and issuers alike,” Gensler wrote in a statement. “The staff comprises true public servants. It has been an honor of a lifetime to serve with them on behalf of everyday Americans and ensure that our capital markets remain the best in the world.”

Including acting chairs, Gensler was the 33rd chair of the SEC, established in 1934.

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