Dallas and Wellesley, MA, February 14, 2007 - Placemark Investments, the investment industry's largest independent provider of active overlay portfolio management services, is pleased to announce that its assets under management rose to over $5 billion as of the end of January, a more than threefold jump in 12 months, fueled by robust demand for the company's open-architecture Unified Managed Account (UMA) solutions from existing and new sponsors.
In the past 12 months, Placemark has won mandates as the active overlay manager in UMA and Multi-Discipline SMA (separately managed account) programs from several prestigious clients, including Smith Barney Consulting Group, the managed account unit of Citigroup Inc.; registered investment adviser Homrich & Berg; and, most recently, Oppenheimer Asset Management, an affiliate of Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. Placemark had $1.5 billion in managed assets in February 2006.
Over 30,000 financial advisors serving investors in the US and Canada now have access to UMA programs sponsored by companies using Placemark's overlay management services. Advisors are rapidly adopting these UMA programs as their preferred means of delivering highly customized solutions for their most sophisticated clients. Placemark currently works with over 200 separate account investment styles provided by over 120 industry-leading investment managers.
"We're delighted to report Placemark's increase in managed assets, which is a reflection of the high regard advisors have demonstrated for the benefits of the unified managed account," said Lee Chertavian, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Placemark Investments. "We're particularly gratified that our active overlay management service plays an important role in helping our clients achieve their growth and client service objectives."
Placemark highlights during the past 12 months also include:
- Managed assets in the Smith Barney SELECT Portfolios program, in which Placemark serves as the discretionary overlay manager, now exceed $2 billion.
- Managed assets in the BMO Nesbitt Burns Architect program surpassed $750 million. Placemark serves as overlay manager for Architect, Canada's first full-featured, open-architecture Unified Managed Account program.
- Managed assets in the RBC Dain Rauscher Total Portfolio UMA program, in which Placemark serves as the discretionary overlay manager, topped $750 million.
- Placemark's employee count has nearly doubled since February 2006 to 95 at present, and the firm is moving to larger offices in Dallas to accommodate the company's continued growth.
Placemark works with managed account program sponsors to develop custom programs that deliver superior features and value for advisors and their clients, while leveraging the sponsors' existing operational infrastructure and preferred investment managers and products.
Placemark offers customized investment solutions, implementing transition plans for clients with concentrated positions, or portfolios with deep embedded capital gains, and tailoring client portfolios for individual tax and risk requirements. Over 35% of Placemark's total taxable assets under management are managed using the firm's tax customization and transition services.
UMAs - fee-based investment solutions that combine multiple investments such as separately managed accounts, mutual funds and ETFs into customized portfolios - and Multi-Discipline SMA programs are projected to increase by 40-50% annually to $500 billion in assets by 2010, according to research published by the Washington, DC-based Money Management Institute, an industry association.
"Our ability to work with sponsors and integrate their preferred products and investment managers, plus our flexibility in features and back-office systems support, has made Placemark the overlay manager of choice for companies developing custom wealth management programs,'' said Randy Bullard, Executive Vice President and Head of Business Development.
