Products July 14, 2022

Investment Product and Service Launches

Wilshire brings to market third-gen factor index series and Northern Trust Front Office Solutions enhances liquidity management solutions for asset owners.

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Wilshire Brings to Market Third-Gen Factor Index Series

Wilshire, a global financial services firm, has announced the launch of the FT Wilshire Pure Factor Index Series and the FT Wilshire Multi-Factor Index Series. Each new index launched over the past 12 months overcomes systematic issues that have been the result of legacy technology and index construction. With the new factor indexes, investors can now implement factor allocation decisions without unintended exposures.

Wilshire has undergone a complete modernization of the standard index business model to ensure that its products and licensing are completely investor focused. The investment community will be better equipped to identify opportunities, assess risk and access markets as the markets continue to evolve.

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“The market has evolved considerably over the last few decades and many index designs that were formulated during that time are not appropriate for today’s market,” says Wilshire CEO Mark Makepeace. “We’ve built a modern index platform that has given us the agility to test ideas and construct better indexes to overcome the persistent challenges of current incumbent benchmarks. The new third generation factor index series provides more precision in targeting specific factor and multi factor exposures and provides an innovative approach to automating the selection of a diversified set of factors.”

Northern Trust Front Office Solutions Enhances Liquidity Management Solutions for Asset Owners

Northern Trust has launched an enhanced liquidity management data tool in its Front Office Solutions platform. The web-based tool gives asset owners with significant allocations to private market assets better control over their liquidity through unified and customized reporting.

The web-based Liquidity Management module offers users a comprehensive view of their portfolio’s liquidity based on several factors, including private equity real-time data and expected cash flows as well as complex hedge fund contractual terms and conditions.

The tool allows asset owners to monitor and assess their cash flow pacing across private and public markets through a custom time horizon feature, removing the burdensome manual steps that investors often take. Adding a visual element, the tool gives users the ability to view their cash flow pacing through bar charts, providing an enhanced perspective for evaluating highly complex liquidity scenarios.

Front Office Solutions is an integrated, cloud-based service and data platform that enables investment offices to view data from disparate sources across all asset classes in one central repository. It serves complex asset owners including foundations, endowments, family offices, pensions and outsourced chief investment officers with the data they need, in the format they need it, enabling them to make informed investment decisions that help them achieve their strategies.

Deals & People July 14, 2022

Wealth M&A Slows, but Strategic Deals Continue to Be Inked

Alera Group, a national insurance and wealth services firm, is among the latest established entities to begin picking up smaller independent wealth management shops in key markets.

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This week, Alera Group, an independent national insurance and wealth services firm, announced its acquisition of DFG 401(k) Advisors, an independent qualified retirement plan services company.

DFG is led by Jeff Anderson, president and managing partner. In a press release announcing the deal, he says the firm brings to the table more than 30 years of experiencing collaborating with “conscientious companies” in the effort to scrutinize and benchmark their 401(k) plans.

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“The goal is to improve benefits, save money, streamline administration and ensure compliance amid the confusion of changing legislation and regulations,” he adds. “We are a dedicated team of industry professionals, protecting fiduciaries from corporate and personal financial liability and enhancing potential return-on-plan investment opportunities.”

Based in Phoenix, Arizona, DFG 401(k) Advisors, provides a variety of services in fiduciary guidance, plan performance and employee financial wellness. Alan Levitz, CEO of Alera Group, says in the release that DFG 401(k) Advisors is dedicated to helping clients execute the best strategies in order to achieve their desired level of financial security.

“The team is aligned with Alera Group as it endeavors to exceed client expectations, as they provide quality retirement solutions,” Levitz says. “We look forward to welcoming this team to Alera Group and expanding our footprint in Arizona.”

DFG 401(k) Advisors joins Alera Group under the name BCG 401(k) Advisors through Benefit Commerce Group (BCG), an Alera Group company headquartered in Scottsdale. The BCG 401(k) Advisors team will continue serving clients in their existing roles. Terms of the transaction were not announced.

Wise Rhino Group served as exclusive adviser to DFG 401(k) Advisors.

Peter Campagna, partner at Wise Rhino Group, says in a separate statement that DFG’s partnering with a firm like Alera will help them bring their client service to even higher levels.

“These two firms working together have a very bright future,” Campagna says.

As Campagna observes, the acquisition represents a push into the wealth and retirement area by Alera Group, following on the heels of its June acquisition of Wharton Group. Similar to other strategic acquirers, Alera’s M&A strategy is about bringing retirement plan consulting and wealth management capabilities together with a large healthcare benefits footprints—all under the Alera Group brand.

News of Alera’s acquisition comes after total wealth management M&A activity decreased for the second straight quarter of 2022, after reaching an all-time high in the final quarter of 2021. This is according to Echelon Partner’s latest RIA M&A Deal Report.

Specifically, Echelon finds quarterly deal volume declined again in the second quarter, but it still remains elevated from a historical perspective. Industry-wide, there were 87 deals announced in the second quarter. While a decrease from the most recent periods, the transaction volume level still makes it the third most active quarter since Echelon began tracking the data.

As Echelon points out, strategic acquirers and consolidators continued to execute on their M&A pipelines despite the more volatile markets. This level of commitment from experienced acquirers means that deal structures and valuations have remained relatively attractive for sellers, the report concludes.

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