Welcome to the investment operations content channel sponsored by SEI. Here you will find frequently updated features on future industry trends and operational issues for asset managers globally, with a focus on private equity, private debt, real estate and hedge fund managers.
Founded in 1968, SEI became a US public company in 1981 and is listed on the U.S. NASDAQ stock market under the ticker symbol SEIC. With our corporate headquarters based in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a significant presence in London and Dublin, our 3800+ employees serve asset managers, institutional investors and financial institutions around the globe.
To help investment managers compete and succeed in an environment of escalating challenges, risks and complexity, SEI Investment Manager Services division provides the sophisticated operating capabilities and services needed to optimise their business performance across key product structures, asset classes and domiciles. Alternative and traditional asset managers worldwide currently entrust over USD1 trillion in assets with us.
“Climate change and housing affordability are not disconnected. You can mitigate both issues through greater density of housing in less vulnerable areas,” says Oscar Vasquez, COO of Encore Capital Management, in a new whitepaper from SEI.
Adapting to change is challenging at the best of times, but when the pace of change accelerates, it can disorient even the savviest investors. Long accustomed to gauging opportunities in the context of cycles, real estate investors now face a series of bewildering structural changes that will fundamentally transform how they operate in the future.
When last writing about ETF trends in early 2016, we marveled at the torrid pace of growth but also observed a market that was maturing. That process quickly reached a key milestone, with every one of Morningstar’s categories now represented by at least one ETF. Though saturated with product, asset flows continue to gain momentum. We noted two years ago that the “groundwork is also being laid for another phase of rapid growth.”
As the demand for Collective Investment Trusts (CITs) in Defined Contribution (DC) plans gains momentum, asset managers must build a comprehensive strategy for CIT share class creation and pricing that helps them capitalize on the opportunity without further eroding profitability.
According to the Investment Company Institute (ICI), employer-sponsored retirement plans held assets totalling USD27.1 trillion at the end of 2018, up 12.9 per cent from year-end 2015. Of that, employer-sponsored defined contribution (DC) plans accounted for USD7.5 trillion, of which collective investment trusts (CITs) are estimated to account for 25 per cent by the end of 2020, up from 14 per cent in 2013.
In today’s environment, persistent pricing pressure, the demand of custom investment products and the rise of “institutional-style” investing across defined contribution (DC) plan segments are all contributing to the continued growth of collective investment trusts (CITs).
In a recent white paper entitled Evolution in Asset Management, SEI pointed out that 70 per cent of US fund managers are currently looking to deploy advanced analytics in the front-office. The field of data science and machine learning-based data analysis is helping to transform how fund managers think about data to gain a competitive edge.
Investment managers stand at a crossroads today. Faced with a rapidly changing digital world, they must determine which path to take to help them transform their business models and respond to the needs of a younger generation of investors.
In this latest podcast, produced in association with SEI, Michiel Meeuwissen, Head of Hedge Fund Solutions at Kempen Capital Management, and SEI’s Ross Ellis, discuss the evolution of asset management, and in particular two key trends – vulnerable economics, and emboldened investors.
“Client services could be a key focal point going forward for how fund managers might stand out from the crowd and remain relevant,” says Ross Ellis (pictured), Vice President and Managing Director of the Knowledge Partnership in the Investment Manager Services division at SEI, when discussing the third of five trends in SEI’s latest white paper, Evolution in Asset Management.