Bernstein Debuts Private Label Donor-Advised Fund
Bernstein Private Wealth Management, the private wealth division of AllianceBernstein L.P., headquartered in New York City, has launched a private label donor-advised fund program.
Donor-advised funds, which are popular with philanthropic individuals and families, have doubled grant distributions in the past five years, the company said in a news release announcing the product launch. The addition of the new “Bernstein Philanthropic Impact Fund” to the Bernstein platform will offer high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients a charitable giving vehicle for a range of assets and levels of complexity.
The National Philanthropic Trust, a Jenkintown, Pa.-based charity and one of the nation’s largest independent sponsors of donor-advised funds, will administer the new fund. Since its founding in 1996, National Philanthropic Trust has raised more than $45.6 billion in charitable funding and has made more than 600,000 grants exceeding $23.6 billion to nonprofits worldwide.
The Bernstein Philanthropic Impact Fund is now available to Bernstein clients as part of its broader suite of donor-advised fund products. To learn more about the new fund, visit https://info.bernstein.com/daf.
Wealth.com Introduces AI Estate Planning Assistant For Advisors
Wealth.com, a Phoenix-based estate-planning platform, has launched a first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence legal assistant for financial advisors allowing them to more easily and less expensively create custom-designed estate plans for their clients.
Unlike off-the-shelf large language models (language models are algorithms that can recognize or generate texts), the company said that its proprietary model, called Ester, is conditioned with both short-term and long-term memory that can incorporate past client actions into its responses, more effectively guiding clients by addressing their questions and concerns in real time.
Ester also allows advisors to build multigenerational relationships with both prospective and established clients by using cutting-edge technology to create adaptable estate plans that evolve with changing circumstances.
Eduardo Fontes, senior vice president of data science, is one of the architects who developed Ester. He holds a master’s degree in data science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and brings nearly three decades of financial services machine learning experience to his role at Wealth.com.
iCapital Launches Online Alternatives Marketplace
Capital, the New York City-based platform for high-net-worth alternative asset investors, has launched an online marketplace connecting financial advisors and their clients with alternative investment opportunities. It’s called the iCapital Marketplace.
Wealth managers seeking to diversify client portfolios with the addition of alternatives can now access private equity, private debt, real assets and hedge funds all in one place. The iCapital Marketplace also includes educational tools, such as market insights, webinars and training modules.
Powered by proprietary and patented technology, the platform’s document center and investment dashboard provide a holistic view of client investments throughout the investment life cycle, and simplify the oversight and investment communication to advisors’ clients. Filtering options allow advisors to narrow the fund menu to what is most relevant to them, including funds distributed by iCapital.
Founded in 2013, iCapital said it was servicing more than $157 billion in client assets worldwide as of April 30, 2023.
Principal Launches Annuity Solution With Sustainability Index
Principal Financial Group, a global financial services and insurance company headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, has introduced its first registered index-linked annuity (or RILA).
The Principal Strategic Outcomes product offers four indexes, which include not only the S&P 500, Russell 2000 and MSCI EAFE, but also the SG Smart Climate Index, a climate-focused, sustainability index from Société Générale that uses technology models from Entelligent, a climate analytics firm, to calculate an “E-Score.” This score is used to estimate investor return through socially conscious investments that promote environmental stewardship.
Principal Strategic Outcomes is the second annuity-related offering that Principal has launched in the past 12 months.
Blueleaf Offers Advisors Aggregator Service With Client Tech Support
Blueleaf, an all-in-one wealth management platform headquartered in Boston, has launched a new aggregation system that accesses more than 25,000 institutions through multiple aggregators. The firm calls this “aggregation-as-a-service” and says it takes the tech support burden off advisors by offering support directly to clients.
The system is accessible via Blueleaf’s multi-channel client experience, but is also available for large enterprises to integrate into their own applications.
Aggregation-as-a-service is part of a series of innovations that Blueleaf is announcing to consistently improve the software experience in wealth management for advisors and their clients.
Blueleaf serves wealth managers, RIAs and broker-dealers by simplifying time-consuming operations. Its interface combines reporting, rebalancing and trading, billing and invoicing, and automation technologies.