Orion Advisor Solutions has added five actively managed fixed-income, separately managed account strategies from AllianceBernstein to its platform that focus on municipal bonds.
The move comes after Orion launched indexing solutions that allow advisors to customize equity portfolios.
"We’re constantly innovating our technology and investment offerings,” said Ryan Beach, president of Orion Wealth Management in an email. “We wanted to provide this same level of customization in the fixed income setting and decided to bring in AllianceBernstein as a partner as their strategy in the fixed income space closely matched what we were doing in the equity space.”
Orion will be offering AB Tax Aware SMA, AB Municipal Income SMA, AB Municipal Impact SMA, AB High Quality Municipal SMA, and AB Municipal Ladders SMA on its platform. The five strategies consist of more than $41 billion in assets.
The company says the products are part of an effort to increase offerings desired by high-net-worth clients.
In addition, Orion was looking for a particular suite of products when it partnered with AllianceBernstein, according to Mike Capella, head of the RIA, IBD and bank channel at AllianceBernstein.
“They wanted a fixed-income-only or a municipal-specific manager to join the platform to help them build out capabilities,” he said.
The five strategies look to generate tax-efficient income and growth, Capella added. AB Tax Aware seeks out the best after-tax returns for an investor’s portfolio while taking into account certain details such as the investor’s tax rate and home state.
AB Municipal Income operates similarly to Tax Aware by providing access to municipal credit without allowing for crossover trades, he said. Meanwhile, AB Municipal Impact invests in bonds that deliver a positive impact on underprivileged socio-economic areas, according to Capella.
AB High Quality Municipal SMA and AB Municipal Ladders SMA both offer high-quality A-rated bonds, he said.
As part of the agreement, AllianceBernstein will provide educational materials and tools to help advisors engage clients in the municipal space. The firm also provides various scorecards to demonstrate the value of the AB portfolios on a client's overall portfolio, Capella said.