INTEGRATED RETIREMENT SOLUTIONS

SEI (www.seic. com, NASDAQ ) , is a leading provider of integrated asset and retirement solutions serving about 8,200 clients, including banks, trust institutions, wealth management organizations, independent investment advisors, retirement plan sponsors, corporations, not-for-profit organizations, investment managers, hedge fund managers, and high-net-worth families. SEI administers $751 billion in mutual fund and pooled assets, has over $281 billion in assets under management and $470 billion in client’s assets under administration. Its main office and corporate headquarters is in Oaks, Pennsylvania, USA, near Philadelphia. They also operate from offices in Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, the Netherlands, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

The SEI solution can bring cost reduction, organizational efficiencies, ease in administration, greater manager oversight and diversification, and patent pending technology that helps plan sponsors better align asset management to organizational goals and objectives. 

SEI's IMS division (Investment Managers) today services more than $850 billion in assets and has a global workforce of approximately 1,000 industry specialists. Our clients are leading traditional, alternative, and sovereign wealth managers who understand that operational competitiveness lies at the core of business success. They currently represent more than $15.5 trillion in AUM including 35 of the top 100 money managers worldwide, according to Pensions & Investments.

SEI provides outsourcing solutions for asset management and retirement plan services to corporations, hospitals, higher-ed institutions, endowments, foundations, unions, and other institutional investors.  Samplings of their clients include:

The value propositions that SEI brings are:

Figure 1 - Help plan sponsors achieve cost reduction and gain organizational efficiencies.

The left side of Figure 1 represents the traditional, unbundled approach to pension plan management.  The right side of Figure 1 represents SEI’s outsourced, bundled approach.  There are 3 main benefits achieved in SEI’s outsourced, bundled approach.  First, on average, we have seen that a bundled approach can reduce the cost of managing the pension plan by as much as 10-20%.  Second, the outsourced approach will bring organizational efficiencies -- reduce the number of heads spending time on pension issues.  Third, the outsourced approach provides a single point of contact for all pension concerns.

Reduce the risk the pension plan will have on corporate goals and objectives.

Corporate executives have had to weigh the tradeoffs between pension financial health and corporate financial health.  SEI’s solution – which emphasizes holistic advice by bringing pension finance, corporate finance, and corporate goals and objectives together – helps companies deal with this current state.  

Figure 2 represents SEI’s holistic pension approach

Figure 2

Deliver an investment solution that provides rigorous manager research that will yield greater manager control and more consistent investment performance.

SEI uses a Manager-of Managers (MoM) investment process.  By definition, a MoM program is one in which a single independent firm is responsible for the portfolio construction, manager selection, manager evaluation and manager replacements within a certain asset class or an entire investment portfolio.  Unlike a traditional consulting process in which the plan sponsor must ultimately pick managers, the MoM chooses actual managers, determines the proportion of the portfolio that each manager will manage and makes ongoing hiring and firing decisions through time.

An additional benefit of the MoM investment approach is that SEI manages all of the relationships with the underlying managers – capable of monitoring trading activity on a daily basis, managing cash flows and rebalancing across asset classes, ensuring operational efficacy and proactively making manager changes and additions where appropriate.

Share in the risk of the plan by acting as a co-fiduciary to the plan sponsor.

Under ERISA regulations, the trustees of the plan act as fiduciaries with respect to policy decisions, investment decisions and compliance.  The traditional consultant acts as an information gatherer and facilitator, rather than a decision-maker, and cannot provide additional fiduciary protection.

In contrast, SEI actively makes decisions regarding manager selection and implementation consistent with the client’s strategic goals and objectives.  Through this arrangement, SEI is able to act as a co-fiduciary with respect to plan assets, providing an additional layer of protection for the trustees.

Some recent acknowledgements:

2016

SEI Wealth Platform in the U.K. received the GoodAccreditation from Goodacre UK, which is awarded based on feedback and comments from users of systems that are being considered (June 2016).

Buy-Side Technology again recognized IMS with "Best Fund Administrator" at their awards in London.  This is our seventh year winning this award. 

IMS was recognized with "Best Middle-Office Solution" for our suite of Middle Office services at HFMWeek's US Service Provider Awards.

Fund Intelligence awarded us “Best Administrator Client Service – Over $100bn AUA” at their US Mutual Fund Services Awards.

IMS was recognized in two categories at the Hedgeweek US reader survey awards, winning both "Best Liquid Alternatives '40 Act Fund Administrator" and "Best Managed Account platform Technology Firm."

Our division was awarded "Best Administrator -- illiquid and hybrid strategies" at the HFMWeek European Service Provider Awards in London. 

Hedgeweek Global's reader survey recognized us as the "Best Liquid Alternatives '40 Act Fund Administrator" for our innovative support and service model.

CTA Intelligence awarded the division "Best Administrator -- Overall" at their US awards for our continued investment in technology and service.