Manning conceded that clients were not knocking down the door for a value strategy for the years leading up to the pandemic. But he said the timing of the new acquisition was more about having more choices for clients than taking advantage of a market shift.
“Go back to 2019 and value was clearly out of favor,” Manning said. “So our thought around that was really more diversification of the product capability and the solution set to meet the needs of our clients. We’ve been long of the opinion that growth was not going to last forever as the dominant investment style and that [reversal] was long overdue. It took the new Federal Reserve interest rate cycle to change that dynamic. So the timing [of the acquisition] has been great in that perspective and has been right in the sweet spot of what is working today.”
The transition of clients’ assets from one style to another can be expensive and it’s the diverse set of options that’s more important than a shift to any one style, he said.
F.L.Putnam’s acquisition activity has been targeted, he said. In 2019, the firm announced its plan to build out its financial planning capability by adding Financial Focus, the Wolfeboro, N.H., a firm run by Susan John, the former CFP Board chair. The firm opened an office in Providence, R.I., by hiring a team under the leadership of Thomas Fay to build its bench in the Rhode Island community.
The firm now has offices in Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York.