Investment Product and Service Launches

Art by Jackson Epstein

Stadion Money Management Launches Managed Account Technology 

Managed account provider Stadion Money Management has launched Stadion Technology. Stadion will now offer its retirement managed account technology to asset managers and advisory firms to power their ability to offer managed accounts to retirement plans.

Demand from asset managers for Stadion Technology drove Stadion’s decision to launch this new business line. Since 2004, Stadion has built recordkeeping integrations for participant account management.

“Stadion’s goal is to become the leader in delivering personalized account solutions in the adviser-sold defined contribution [DC] market. In order to achieve this goal, we recognize that we need to deliver more than just our own managed account to the marketplace,” said Jud Doherty, president and CEO. “Our firm values the impact personalization can have on an individual’s retirement. Taking our managed account technology, which we’ve been operating for years, and making it available to other organizations is a natural progression in our firm’s growth.”

Vanguard Expands Access to Private Equity 

Vanguard has announced plans to broaden access to private equity. 

The company entered the private equity market last year with an initial focus on institutional advised clients, including pensions, endowments and foundations. In continued partnership with HarbourVest, Vanguard will provide qualified individual investors with access to private equity this summer.

“Private equity has the potential to improve long-term investment outcomes of a broadly diversified portfolio,” says Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley. “Over time, we will expand access to this asset class, which has traditionally been reserved for the wealthiest investors, to the many qualified investors at Vanguard.” 

Vanguard is taking a structured approach to opening private equity access to individual investors. Eligibility requirements include certification as a qualified purchaser and accredited investor. The strategy will initially be available to eligible non-advised Vanguard clients and is expected to be made available to eligible advised clients of Vanguard Personal Advisor Services in the near future. 

“We look forward to providing our qualified individual investors access to our partnership with HarbourVest, one of the industry’s premier private equity providers,” says Matt Benchener, managing director of Vanguard Retail Investor Group. “Our extensive private equity research suggests that investors who can access high-quality, broadly diversified strategies with top private equity managers can potentially realize significant financial benefits over long time horizons.” 

MSCI Builds Private Infrastructure Modeling Service

MSCI has launched its private infrastructure modeling service to profile the risk of complex private infrastructure holdings and provide data-driven insights to inform investment decisions.

The Private Infrastructure Modelling Service is a response to growing investor demand for private assets. Built using private infrastructure data provided by The Burgiss Group and MSCI Real Estate, the service is designed to give investors tools to further expand their private asset portfolios and benefit from the return and diversification potential of private infrastructure investment opportunities.

The firm says the launch reinforces MSCI’s commitment to provide investors with industry-leading knowledge and insight, and builds on its strategic partnership with Burgiss, a market-leading provider of data, analytics and technology solutions for investors of private capital, announced in January 2020. 

“The private asset class has emerged as a critical component in the construction of long-term portfolios,” says Jorge Mina, head of analytics at MSCI. “Today, investors are looking at private assets differently, expanding and shifting the role the investments play within a multi-asset class portfolio. While capital inflows to private assets have increased incrementally, investor appetite and confidence has been restricted by a lack of transparency and data. At MSCI, we’re committed to powering better investment decisions and we view this modeling service as a crucial milestone driving the next wave of investor demand for private assets.

“Today’s announcement signals the strength of MSCI’s and Burgiss’ partnership and displays how our cross-sector expertise can be utilized to provide industry-leading solutions,” says Jay McNamara, president at Burgiss. “Burgiss’ data and solutions allow investors to drill down at a granular level into the performance and exposures of private capital portfolios across asset classes, including infrastructure. This launch forms the first part of wider plans to bring enhanced transparency to private markets and create an investment experience that mirrors public markets. We are committed to meeting client demands and look forward to expanding our product portfolio to encompass additional asset verticals in future.”