Displaying items by tag: technology

iCapital, a leading global fintech platform, announced today that it agreed to acquire UBS Fund Advisor LLC, UBS’s legacy proprietary US alternative investment manager. The agreement also includes the feeder fund platform that UBS manages. The platform, which is also referred to as “AlphaKeys Funds,” represents more than $7 billion in client assets. It includes private equity, hedge fund, and real estate feeder funds. iCapital will now manage and operate the platform, while UBS Financial Advisors continue to serve their high and ultra-high net worth clients that hold feeder funds. UBS became an investor in iCapital in 2017 and entered into a strategic relationship to structure new feeder funds going forward. It also integrated iCapital’s proprietary technology into its private fund operations. In 2021, the partnership was enhanced to further digitize the UBS Advisor experience. The transaction is expected to close sometime this year.

Finsum:iCapital, which has had a long-standing relationship with UBS, is acquiring its Alternative Investments Feeder Fund Platform which represents more than $7 billion in client assets.

Sure tech investors have had their share of ups and downs, but they have been largely insulated from the market’s bigger losses but things could change. The underlying trends in the technology sector are looking as bad as they have in a long time. There is severe weakness in consumer-oriented hardware products. Moreover, as supply chains relax these prices could fall further. Additionally, sub-sectors such as enterprise tech spending are starting to deteriorate. The weakening demand is beginning to show at the company level as earnings season shows signs of weakness in technology. While there have been outliers such as Cisco, the market might not be ready for widespread tech deterioration.

Finsum: The other huge problem is rising interest rates and rampant inflation which lower the value of future earnings and make growth stocks less attractive.

The proliferation of direct indexing continues as Smartleaf Asset Management’s sub-advisory service is now available on Fidelity’s Institutional Separate Account Network. The service enables advisors to outsource the rebalancing and trading of customized and tax-optimized portfolios. Smartleaf’s offering offers the ability to add direct indexing by making a selection on a pull-down menu. Advisors have the choice of specifying their own allocations and products or selecting allocations and models from third-party providers. The announcement is no surprise as the demand for direct indexing has skyrocketed among advisors. This has been especially true with tax management, risk customization, and impact investing, three areas where direct indexing has seen the greatest implementation. One drawback of direct indexing is that you have to actively manage a direct index portfolio to implement constraints and get tax savings. This is where SmartLeaf is looking to fill the void.

Finsum: With the demand for direct indexing skyrocketing, Smartleaf’s sub-advisory service launched on Fidelity’s Institutional Separate Account Network, providing advisors with an automated direct index solution.

Potomac Fund Management’s model portfolios are reaching a larger audience as its strategies are now available on the FMAX and Amplify platforms. FMAX stands for Fidelity’s Managed Account Xchange, which is an investment platform that connects advisors to portfolio construction solutions. Amplify is another wealth management platform that provides advisors with portfolio and client solutions. This follows a recent announcement by the company that its strategies had launched on the Orion Portfolio Solutions platform. The demand for strategy diversification has skyrocketed as advisors deal with the current bear market. The downturn has led advisors to embrace multiple strategies to build and preserve wealth for their clients. Potomac’s strategies are designed to “win by losing less” which may help financial advisors build portfolios to help protect against market risk. The company’s suite of model portfolios allows advisors to match the right strategy to each investor’s needs.

Finsum: Potomac Fund Management’s model portfolios, which help advisors diversify against market risk, are now available on more platforms.

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