Investment Management Newsflashes: Janney Launches UMA Program With Placemark as Overlay Manager, and more

Janney Launches UMA Program With Placemark as Overlay Manager

Janney Montgomery Scott has launched a new Unified Managed Account (UMA) program in its wealth management services division. Janney is a Philadelphia, Penn.-based, full-service investment firm. Its UMA program will allow its advisers to offer clients a single portfolio that combines multiple investment products, including separately managed accounts, exchange-traded funds and mutual funds. Placemark will serve as the program's overlay manager, responsible for trading all separate account portfolios, and implementing all program features such as tax management and rebalancing.

Janney's UMA program, with minimums as low as $150,000, offers clients a choice of eight different packaged portfolios, with a variety of investment styles, or the ability to create a customized portfolio with a Janney financial consultant. The UMA features an open architecture to facilitate customization and permit the financial consultant to develop any portfolio to meet clients' needs. Additionally, CheckFree APL from Jersey City, N.J.-based CheckFree Investment Services supports Janney's UMA program. Janney also is utilizing the CheckFree APL MSP portfolio accounting module to provide clients with performance reports for both the overall account and each underlying separate account portfolio.

"We wanted to offer our clients a fee-based program with better diversification and greater product flexibility than available in our existing programs," said JR Castle, Janney's director of distribution, wealth management services, in the press release.

Satyam Acquires Citisoft

Satyam Computer Services Limited, an Indian IT solutions company, has acquired Citisoft, a Boston-based investment management consultancy. Satyam has operations in 46 countries and over 20,000 employees. Citisoft will operate as a subsidiary of Satyam and be a part of Satyam's Financial Services Group (FSG).

The consideration for the acquisition consists of a guaranteed payment of $23.2 million payable over a three-year period and an additional performance based payment of up to $15.5 million, to be paid over a three-year period.

"We have a very important partnership with Satyam and we greatly value the technology expertise that they bring to the table," said Steve Buckridge, Chief development officer for investment banking and asset management, Bear Stearns & Co, in the press release. "We have high regards for the strong domain skills that Citisoft has provided to Bear Stearns asset management," he continued. "As a common client for both organizations, we introduced the two organizations to each other as we see immense value in the combined synergy that the two organizations will provide to leading global asset management firms."

MVP Plan Administrators Selects ICC Plan Solutions As Enrollment Kit Provider

MVP Plan Administrators (MVP), a Cary, N.C.-based retirement plan administrator, will offer the ICC Plan Solutions customized enrollment kits to their clients nationwide at a special discount.

"We believe in providing prompt, complete, accurate and timely information to our clients and we are committed to exceeding their expectations and sustaining optimal levels of service at competitive fees," said Kelly Musico, co-owner of MVP, in the press release.

ICC offers the enrollment kits starting at $1.75 for qualified users with no setup costs, no licensing fees and no minimum order fees. Clients also receive free access to the ICC proprietary on-line system, 401k e-P.A.S.S. (Enrollment Plan Automated System Solutions). Qualified parties can receive their free access to 401k e-P.A.S.S. by calling ICC Plan Solutions toll-free at (800) 525-6687.