Keith Henry joined J.P. Morgan as Regional Director for the New York office.
“Keith is an experienced field leader with over 30 years in the financial services industry who knows this business and is excited to be a part of this elite team,”, according Henry LinkedIn profile.
Henry joins J.P. Morgan from a long tenure at Merrill Lynch, where “he built a proven track record hiring and leading financial advisors”. In his last role, he was responsible for coaching more than 450 wealth professionals.
As the former Head of Diversity, Henry implemented training programs to build and develop the skills for racially and gender diverse financial advisors.
In his new role, he will work with J.P: Morgan New York-based financial advisors to support their growth, client acquisition and development.
“Among many of Keith’s career recognitions, he received the first Bank of America CEO Award for Diversity and Inclusion and On Wall Street’s “Top 10 Branch Managers” award,”, the description said.
He launched his career at Merrill 37 years ago as a bookkeeper in operations. Over the years, he relocated to Atlanta, Denver, Washington, D.C., New Orleans and New Jersey, he’s held many roles.
Merrill Lynch named he Director of Multicultural Marketing, where he led strategic business development initiatives within the African American community.
Keith also served as Director of Diversity, “promoting diversity and inclusiveness in the workplace”.
iCapital announced that Bank of America has made a strategic investment in the company, deepening a partnership that began in 2018.
iCapital will use the investment to continue to build out the technical capabilities of its global alternative investing solution that supports more than $130 billion in platform assets.
The investment highlights another milestone in the strategic relationship between iCapital and Bank of America. In March 2019, iCapital acquired Bank of America’s alternative investment feeder fund operations. This enabled Bank of America to streamline and automate ongoing fund operations and administration services for Merrill and Private Bank advisors and their clients.
Since the initial agreement with Bank of America, iCapital has made a series of acquisitions and launches to expand its technical capabilities, broaden the menu of investment opportunities offered on its platform, and continue to lead the industry in developing solutions to overcome barriers to efficiency and adoption.
“We are honored to have the support of Bank of America to further iCapital’s mission to provide financial advisors with a complete alternative investing solution,” said Lawrence Calcano, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of iCapital. “We look forward to continuing to work with the Bank of America team to enhance our platform to best meet the needs of its Merrill and Private Bank advisors seeking a range of alternative investments for their high-net-worth clients,” Calcano added.
“iCapital and Bank of America share the belief that alternative investments are an important component of a well-diversified portfolio and it is critical to increase access, education and service to advisors and their clients,” said Nancy Fahmy, Head of Alternative Investments, Specialty Asset Management and Investment Solutions Specialists for Bank of America.
Bank of America joins an impressive consortium of industry leaders aligned with iCapital’s industry-standard technology solution for facilitating private wealth channel access to alternative investments, and its dedication to develop next generation alternative processing and digital solutions, the press release said.
Bank of America invested in iCapital at the same valuation as iCapital’s last funding round in December 2021. No additional terms of the transaction were disclosed.
Launching new innovative products and establishing new distribution channels emerged as the top two strategic priorities for asset managers seeking growth in their businesses in the Southeast Asia ex-Singapore region over the next one to three years, according to Cerulli Associates’ newly released report, Asset Management in Southeast Asia 2022: Building a Sustainable Growth Pathway.
The report findings show that fund managers consider launching innovative products as their most important business strategy in 2022 and in the next three years.
Many are focusing on global equity and fixed income; environmental, social, and governance; alternatives; and China equity for their product partnership strategies in the region. Partnerships through subadvisory arrangements (50%) were the ranked highest.
Next-generation and disruptive technology sectors are likely to continue offering growth opportunities, especially in a region that is a hotbed of digital adoption. Meanwhile, more funds with the “sustainable” tag are expected to be launched in the region, especially those focused on global asset classes.
Over the past year, the region has seen not only greater diversity of fund categories but also larger offshore fund investments. The rising share of the region’s foreign-invested fund assets indicates a growing realization among investors of the need to diversify beyond their local markets.
Thailand has the highest percentage of foreign-invested mutual funds and is home to the top five feeder fund managers in Southeast Asia ex-Singapore. The country had 28.9%—or US$36.9 billion—of its total mutual fund assets invested in foreign funds at the end of 2021.
Establishing new distribution channels in 2022 and over the next three years ranks second highest on Southeast Asia ex-Singapore managers’ agendas, just after launching new innovative products. Digital channels such as fintech platforms and robo-advisors are set to grow their clout over the longer term. 41% of fund houses expect assets under management raised via online channels to overtake those of traditional channels over the next decade.
“Going beyond traditional channels to diversify sales channels is the way forward. This is perhaps the most important reason to tap into digitalization,” said Shannen Wong, a senior analyst at Cerulli. “While unlikely to be a big AUM puller, managers believe that creating alternative distribution channels is an important step in serving their clients and growing retail assets. Otherwise, they risk losing out to competitors.”
Snowden Lane Partners announced Luis Miguel Gonzalez Ocque has joined the firm as a Senior Partner and Managing Director.
Based in Snowden Lane’s fast-growing Coral Gables office and overseeing $230 million in client assets, Gonzalez Ocque joins the firm with approximately 20 years of experience serving ultra-high net worth clients in Latin America.
“We are excited to welcome Luis to the firm, as his expertise across Latin America fits seamlessly into the international side of our business,” said Richard Ganter, Managing Director, Southeast. “I’ve known Luis for many years and we are fortunate to continue expanding our team in Coral Gables with advisors of his caliber. It’s rewarding to see Snowden Lane’s platform and experience resonate among quality advisors, especially those with international clients such as Luis.”
Prior to Snowden Lane, Gonzalez Ocque served as a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management for 12 years, where he also served on the private wealth management advisory council.
He began his career as an Analyst at American Express in 1999, creating and analyzing portfolios for institutional and high net worth clients. Gonzalez Ocque went on to accept a role as a Director and Vice President with Lehman Brothers’ wealth management team, where he managed institutional and high net worth portfolios and operated across all asset classes, including fixed income, commodities, equities and precious metals. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, he spent two years as a Director with Barclays Wealth’s wealth management division, where he also served on the firm’s executive council.
“I’m glad to be joining Snowden Lane for the next chapter of my career, as the firm has established a tremendous track record across the international wealth management community,” said Gonzalez Ocque. “I am confident that the firm’s platform will allow me to effectively apply my experience and maximize my clients’ financial well-being. It’s encouraging to see the resources Snowden Lane has dedicated to the international side of its business, and I’m looking forward to joining the team in Coral Gables.”
Snowden Lane has 124 total employees, 70 of whom are financial advisors, across 12 offices around the U.S.
Insigneo is implementing an all-in-one platform that allows for the management, administration, and real-time portfolio analysis of Structured Products, developed by VIZIBILITY.
VIZIBILITY will facilitate the ability to monitor, research, and execute Structured Products while improving productivity and time efciency, according the company information.
With this step, Insigneo continues its path to becoming the first tech enabled US wealth management platform designed to service the needs of investors globally.
Aurelien Vicart, Managing Director of VIZIBILITY comment: We are excited to partner with Insigneo. This collaboration will provide them with a new technology ally. Our goal is to remove the traditional complexities around Structured Products and provide them a powerful platform to bring their business to the next level.
On the other hand, Vicente Martin, Head of Structured Products at Insigneo added: As part of the agreement, VIZIBILITY, a Swiss-based firm, will help Insigneo lead this wave of innovation with a platform that provides the best intelligence and insight to analyze, monitor, and execute Structured Products with confidence, in real-time.
About VIZIBILITY
VIZIBILITY provides a centralized workflow across all roles, including portfolio managers, advisors, private banks, custodians & private investors. The multi-issuer platform covers 99% of SP market needs and provide efective price comparisons, streamline operations, scalability, transparency, and powerful reporting. The firm is part of Capital Vision Group, an independent financial engineering company based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Jupiter Fund Management has announced the appointment of Matthew Beesley as the Company’s new Chief Executive Officer, replacing Andrew Formica.
Formica has informed the Company’s Board of Directors of his intention to retire from his role as Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) and a Director of the Company with effect from 1 October 2022.
Beesley, Group Chief Investment Officer, will assume the role of Chief Executive Officer with effect from that time, subject to customary regulatory approvals. He will be appointed to the Company’s Board of Directors and promoted to Deputy Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect. Matthew will retain his global Chief Investment Officer responsibilities during the transition.
Formica has always made it clear to the Board that his long-term plans would involve relocating to his native Australia with his family. Having completed the initial phase of Jupiter’s business transformation, he believes that now is the right time to relinquish leadership of the business to enable the next phase to have consistent and strong leadership throughout that period, the press release said.
Following his departure as CEO and as a director of the business, Formica will relocate back to Australia, but will remain with the business until June 30, 2023 to ensure a smooth leadership transition and to assist with a number of strategic objectives, including supporting the Asian business and developing our offering in the Australian market. In addition, while he remains an employee of the Group, he will remain on the NZS Capital Board as a representative of the company, the firm says.
As part of the Board’s succession planning process, Matthew Beesley joined Jupiter in January 2022, as Chief Investment Officer. He has had a significant impact across the business since his appointment and the Board has been impressed with his strategic insights, leadership skills and unwavering focus on client outcomes, according to company information.
Prior to joining Jupiter, Beesley was chief investment officer of Artemis Investment Management. Prior to that, he served as Chief Investment Officer and Head of Equities at GAM Investments and Head of Global Equities at Henderson Global Investors. Prior to that, Matthew held various global equity portfolio manager positions.
Nichola Pease, Chairman of Jupiter, commented, “On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Andrew for his significant contribution over the past three years. Andrew has been an excellent leader during a very challenging period for the company, the industry and indeed the world; his experience and vision have strengthened our underlying business and driven progress towards our long-term strategic objectives. Andrew leaves with the best wishes of the Board and we are pleased that he will remain with the company to ensure a full CEO transition and move forward a number of important strategic initiatives.”
For his part, Andrew Formica stated, “Jupiter is a customer-led business and I am proud to have worked with such a fantastic and dedicated team as we navigated through an extremely difficult period for the business and markets. Despite these challenges, we have continued to deliver strong investment performance for our clients and our focus on high conviction active management. While it is always difficult to find the right time for handover, we have made significant progress against our strategic priorities, ensuring that Jupiter is now a more diversified and resilient business, which has improved its positions in critical areas such as sustainability and data science and has the right elements in place to support long-term growth. I am pleased to see the board appoint Matthew Beesley as my successor, and look forward to working with him to ensure a smooth transition.”
Janus Henderson announced the hiring of a four-person Emerging Market Debt (EMD) team into its global fixed income platform.
The team comprises long-standing and well-respected portfolio managers Bent Elvin Lystbaek, Jacob Ellinge Nielsen, Thomas Haugaard, and Sorin Pirău. The team joins from Danske Bank Asset Management, where they managed $6,31bn in hard currency EMD pooled vehicles and segregated accounts for both institutional and retail clients.
They will join Janus Henderson by 1st September 2022 and report to Jim Cielinski, Global Head of Fixed Income. The team will be based in Copenhagen, Denmark, further expanding the firm’s northern European footprint.
Mr. Cielinski says the EMD team acquisition emphasizes Janus Henderson’s focus on meeting clients’ needs for standalone emerging market debt strategies and enhancing Janus Henderson’s overall global fixed income franchise and ability to build multi-sector fixed income solutions.
“Emerging markets debt is a fast-growing segment of the market that many investors look to for higher income and risk-adjusted returns. We believe this is a critical component of a global fixed income platform that supports single-strategy and multi-sector portfolios,” he said.
“Adding this EMD hard currency capability to Janus Henderson’s global fixed income platform complements our existing strengths in Emerging Market corporate credit, global bonds, and Emerging Market equities. We are excited to welcome our new colleagues Bent, Jacob, Thomas, and Sorin to Janus Henderson and look forward to generating risk-adjusted returns for our clients,” Mr. Cielinski added.
The EMD team’s investment process has consistently delivered for clients since its inception in 2013. It seeks to generate alpha through country allocation and security selection, focusing on credit risk premia. The team integrates environmental, social, and governance factors into the research process and considers quantitative and qualitative factors to determine an internal, forward-looking score, the press release said.
Ali Dibadj, Chief Executive Officer at Janus Henderson, commented: “Hiring a world-class EMD team demonstrates our commitment to responding to our clients’ needs and supporting the growth of our firm. We will continue to look for organic and inorganic ways to do this.”
iM Global Partner announced that it has launched a new fund managed by its Partner Scharf Investments, the iMGP Global Concentrated Equity fund.
The fund will have a concentrated portfolio of around 30 stocks, that seeks to deliver outstanding long-term risk-adjusted returns using a value-focused, fundamental and bottom-up approach.
The strategy was first launched in the US in 2014 as the Scharf Global Opportunity Fund (WRLDX) and was rated 5 stars by Morningstar as at 30 April 2022. Since inception the fund has consistently been ranked highly and is currently in the top 10% of the 40-act Global Large Stock Value sector (as of 31 May, 2022). The new fund will use this same time-tested approach.
Based in Los Gatos California, Scharf Investments has been a Partner since April 2019, when iM Global Partner acquired a 40% stake in the company. It already manages the iMGP US Value fund.
Eric Lynch, Managing Director of Scharf Investments, said: “In our experience managing our 25-year top performing US Value strategy, we found we were consistently adding alpha from non-US holdings. However, we were sometimes frustrated that allocation limits prevented us from investing in select global stocks for clients. So in 2014 we extended our investment process and success into a global strategy. Great investment ideas are not constrained by geography and now neither are we.”
Philippe Uzan, Deputy CEO, CIO Global Asset Management commented: “We are very pleased to launch this new fund with Scharf Investments, a recognized leader in value equity management. Their exceptional track record reflects their capacity to combine quality and valuation criteria in a disciplined and proven approach.
The firm focuses on medium-term capital protection through stock selection which clearly differentiates them from a traditional value approach. “We believe the fund’s approach, which combines both value and quality, is particularly adapted to a late cycle market environment”, the statement says.
Jamie Hammond, CEO UK and Head of International Distribution said: “2022 has seen a bit of a rotation from growth to value and we are getting a lot of demand for value-oriented investments, particularly in the global space. Concentrated portfolios are also of strong interest to clients looking for an active approach to global equities and, combined with compelling capture ratios in both up and down markets, the strategy should be attractive to clients”.
ProShares launched the first short bitcoin-linked ETF in the United States last Tuesday.
The ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF (NYSE Ticker: BITI) provides a way for investors to potentially profit from a decline in the price of bitcoin or hedge their cryptocurrency exposure with the convenience of an ETF.
BITI is designed to address the challenge of acquiring short exposure to bitcoin, which can be onerous and expensive for many investors.
“As recent times have shown, bitcoin can drop in value,” said ProShares CEO Michael L. Sapir.
He added: “BITI affords investors who believe that the price of bitcoin will drop with an opportunity to potentially profit or to hedge their cryptocurrency holdings. BITI enables investors to conveniently obtain short exposure to bitcoin through buying an ETF in a traditional brokerage account.”
BITI is designed to deliver the inverse of the performance of the the S&P CME Bitcoin Futures Index. It seeks to achieve its objective on each investment day and for no other period. BITI seeks to obtain exposure through bitcoin futures contracts.
For investors who prefer a mutual fund, ProFunds, the affliated mutual fund company of ProShares, launched Short Bitcoin Strategy ProFund (BITIX). The BITIX mutual fund has the the same investment objective as BITI.
In October 2021, ProShares launched BITO, the first U.S. bitcoin-linked ETF, and attracted more than $1 billion in assets from the public in just two days. That made it the most successful launch in the history of the ETF industry. ProFunds launched the first bitcoin-linked mutual fund, BTCFX, in July 2021.
“With the additions of BITI and BITIX, ProShares and ProFunds will be the only fund families in the U.S. offering funds that allow investors to express their view on the direction of bitcoin—no matter whether they believe the price will go up or down,” Sapir added.
Raymond James Financial announced that Haig Ariyan, president of the firm’s Alex. Brown division and head of Global Wealth Solutions, has decided to pursue an opportunity outside of the firm, effective July 15.
“Haig has been instrumental in the successful integration and subsequent growth of the Alex. Brown business following the acquisition of the US Private Client Services Unit of Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management in 2016, said Raymond James Financial Chair and CEO Paul Reilly. “He has been a distinguished leader, cultivating and developing strong management teams, which will help ensure smooth transitions. I have every confidence in the continued success of both Alex. Brown and our Global Wealth Solutions team, and wish Haig well in his future endeavors.”
Following Ariyan’s transition, Alex. Brown and Global Wealth Solutions Chief Operating Officer Michael Tormey, along with John Sutton and Brett Kellam, both Alex. Brown managing directors, will report to Raymond James & Associates President and CEO Tash Elwyn.
In line with the firm’s succession plans, Bill Seugling, managing director of the firm’s Investment Solutions group, has been appointed head of Global Wealth Solutions, reporting to Raymond James’ Private Client Group (PCG) President Scott Curtis.
Tormey joined Raymond James in the acquisition of the US Private Client Services Unit of Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, where he was COO. He joined Deutsche Bank in 2004 and began his career at Bankers Trust Company in 1992.
Seugling joined Raymond James in the acquisition of the US Private Client Services Unit of Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, where he was managing director. He joined Deutsche Bank in 2008 and began his career at Greenwich Associates in 1991.
Sutton joined Raymond James in the acquisition of the US Private Client Services Unit of Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, where he was managing director. He joined Deutsche Bank in 2013 and began his career as a practicing attorney with Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine in 1993.
Kellam joined Raymond James in the acquisition of the US Private Client Services Unit of Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, where he was managing director. He joined Deutsche Bank in 2009 and began his career at Paine Webber in 1981.
“Raymond James’ well-regarded culture allowed me and the Alex. Brown team to evolve our business through a combination of entrepreneurialism and focused attention on advisors and their clients’ individual wealth planning needs,” said Ariyan.
