Product and Service Launches – 4/4/25

Voya Expands TDF Solutions With CIT Blend Series

Voya Financial Inc. announced the launch of the MyCompass Target Date Blend Series, a series of collective investment trusts for which Great Gray Trust Co. LLC serves as trustee. The series is available across all plan sizes.

MyCompassBlend is sub-advised by flexPATH Strategies LLC, which serves as a fiduciary for the investment selection. Voya IM serves as the glide-path fiduciary to the series, leveraging its multi-manager, blended approach which uses both active and passive strategies.

“With over 20 years of experience, Voya IM was an early pioneer of the blend, multi-manager target date approach,” said Barbara Reinhard, chief investment officer of multi-asset strategies and solutions at Voya Investment Management, in a statement. “The launch of MyCompass Blend leverages the investment capabilities of a number of top firms and, with its mix of both active and passive strategies, provides cost effective exposure to a range of asset classes.”

SMArtX Launches BlackRock’s Advisor Center on Platform

SMArtX Advisory Solutions has integrated BlackRock’s Advisor Center, powered by Aladdin technology, into its platform for asset managers and advisers with aims to improve portfolio transparency, client engagement, and investment making decisions.

The launch of Advisor Center within the SMArtX UMA trading platform “creates a more comprehensive experience for users and enables them to better analyze portfolios from a performance, risk, and cost perspective,” the company said. The partnership will offer premier risk and performance analysis, a tax evaluator, and investment solutions including BlackRock and third-party asset manager models.

“We are excited to collaborate with BlackRock to offer Advisor Center,” said Brad Haag, EVP of Asset Manager Solutions, in a statement. “This is a win for qualifying asset managers by expanding distribution opportunities while equipping advisers with deeper risk and tax insights to strengthen portfolio management.”

Congruent Acquires IPX Retirement Edge

Congruent Solutions Inc., a specialist technology partner to the U.S. retirement industry, announced the acquisition of IPX Retirement Edge, a platform for retirement income solutions, from IPX Retirement.

IPX Retirement Edge enables defined contribution retirement plans to offer in-plan guaranteed income investment options. It also supports participants with enrollment, education, investment selection, policy issuance, cashiering and statement reporting.

“IPX Retirement Edge is a transformative solution for annuity providers, sponsors, participants and recordkeepers looking to streamline the integration of guaranteed income options within 401(k) plans,” said Balaraman Jayaraman, Congruent’s CEO, co-founder and president. “IPX Retirement Edge removes the traditional barriers that have made in-plan annuities complex to administer by automating the entire process from participant education through policy management.”

CAIS Launches Alternative Investments Models Marketplace for Advisers

CAIS, an alternative investment platform for financial advisers, introduced  a centralized hub developed to streamline access to multi-asset and multi-manager alternative investment model portfolios called CAIS Models Marketplace.

CAIS Models Marketplace will enabling advisers to more efficiently allocate to private markets and hedge funds. It will offer three multi-asset and multi-manager model portfolio configurations, enabling advisors to allocate seamlessly through CAIS’ trade technology: wealth management firm model portfolios; asset manager model portfolios, from Ares Management, BlackRock, Blue Owl, Carlyle, Franklin Templeton, and KKR, with plans to expand the Models Marketplace over time by adding more managers; and models from CAIS Advisors.

“Designing, implementing, and managing portfolios that include alternatives has historically been a time-intensive and complex process,” said Neil Blundell, Chief Investment Officer at CAIS Advisors and Head of Investments at CAIS. “We are thrilled to enhance our platform capabilities to help with these challenges and provide financial advisers another pathway to integrate alternatives with a suite of alternative investment model portfolios.”

Vanguard Launches Short-Duration ETF

Vanguard is expanding its active bond exchange-traded-fund suite with the launch of Vanguard Short Duration Bond ETF, an active fixed-income ETF managed by the Vanguard Fixed Income Group. VSDB is designed to provide clients with current income and lower price volatility consistent with short-duration bonds.

The short-duration ETF offers diversified exposure to primarily short-duration U.S. investment grade bonds—including structured products exposure, like asset-backed securities—with the flexibility to invest in below-investment-grade debt to seek additional yield.

The ETF is actively managed, enabling the portfolio managers to seek opportunities within their investable universe while “remaining highly risk aware.”

SEI Expands Direct-Index Equity SMA Options

SEI Investments Developments Inc. announced the expansion of its direct-index separately managed account strategies, as well as enhancements to its unified managed account solutions, to integrate these strategies into model portfolios constructed to better serve financial advisers and their clients with “sophisticated, scalable and tax-efficient” investment solutions.

The new strategies are designed to serve mass-affluent, high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth investors.

SEI also provides a personalized “Estimated Taxes Saved” report to advisers that includes client-specific information about estimated year-to-date taxes saved (or incurred) by performing active tax management.