The latest news in investment offerings, financial products and other services relevant to wealth advisors and their clients.

UBS Global Wealth Management (GWM)
UBS Global Wealth Management (GWM) has launched its Exclusive Manager Access Fund Program, a new offering in Asia that provides clients with differentiated access to a universe of global investment managers and exclusive investment opportunities not widely available to the broader wealth management market. 

Designed exclusively for UBS GWM clients, the programme provides access to institutional quality investment opportunities through a selection of high-performing funds. Using UBS's global investment platform, manager relationships and due diligence expertise, the platform connects clients to leading fund managers worldwide, including managers with limited or no presence in Asia. All strategies featured on the platform are exclusive to UBS GWM clients only, the firm said in a statement.

The programme will be launched in Hong Kong and Singapore first, and then expanded to Taiwan, providing UBS GWM clients across the region with a menu of opportunities designed to support their long-term investment objectives.

"This programme demonstrates the strength of UBS's global and local expertise and capabilities. Through close collaboration across regions, we were able to develop a distinctive offering tailored to the unique needs of clients in APAC,” Solita Marcelli, global head of investment management, UBS GWM, said.

“With this programme we are redefining the way the funds business is conducted in the wealth management industry by giving clients access to a carefully curated universe of high-performing managers and investment opportunities available exclusively through this programme, and combining institutional-levels of portfolio transparency and performance analytics,” Jansen Phee, APAC head fund investment solutions, UBS GWM, added. “In doing so, we are offering clients a differentiated experience focused on quality, exclusivity and long-term performance potential."

The programme has been launched with a select group of leading fund managers such as DoubleLine, Acadian Asset Management, Wellington Management, and Tenbagger Capital. Some of the offerings within the programme are co-created by UBS with the managers; they are exclusive to UBS in Asia, giving UBS GWM clients differentiated access to the strategy, while other strategies are primarily available only to institutional clients. The programme will expand over time with the addition of other high-quality managers and investment strategies.

Schroders
In line with a number of investment managers, Schroders has launched two new active exchange traded funds (ETFs), expanding the geographic solutions in its growing suite of products to meet client demand.

The Schroder Europe Equity Active UCITS ETF and Schroder Japan Equity Active UCITS ETF will provide investors with access to actively managed regional equity strategies aimed at identifying companies with attractive value and quality characteristics in Europe and Japan respectively.

The launches build on the expansion of Schroders’ active ETF offering. The Europe and Japan Equity ETFs share an underlying investment philosophy and process with existing Schroders’ Equity ETFs. The ETFs will see their first listings on the XETRA Deutsche Borse today, followed by further listings on the London Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana and SIX Swiss Exchange.

“The launch of our Europe and Japan Equity Active UCITS ETFs marks another important step in the expansion of our active ETF platform, that we continue to grow to meet strong client demand,” Tom Stephens, head of ETFs at Schroders, said. “These ETFs will provide clients with greater choice in how they access Schroders’ active investment expertise by broadening our highly diversified regional equity offering. They also offer solutions with limited index relative risk, alongside the potential for incremental alpha generation across market environments.”

The Schroder Europe Equity Active UCITS ETF is benchmarked against the MSCI Europe (Net TR) Index and the Schroder Japan Equity Active UCITS ETF against the MSCI Japan (Net TR) Index

A number of investment managers, including US-headquartered investment managers Franklin Templeton and Invesco, have been boosting their range of ETFs recently.