Bob Reynolds and his team are making a two-part, advisor-focused push outside of traditional pooled wrappers like mutual funds.

Robert Lloyd Reynolds Putnam Investments / Great-West Lifeco U.S. President, CEO / Chairman

Today Reynolds, president and CEO of Putnam Investments [profile], confirms that the Boston-based asset manager has already launched a suite of separately managed accounts (SMAs) for FAs to use and that a suite of model portfolios will be next. Watch for the Putnam team to further expand both new product suites down the line.

Carlo Forcione Putnam Investments Director of Product Strategy and Development

The SMA push has been three years in the making, confirms Carlo Forcione, director of product strategy and development at Putnam. Back in 2016, in response to client inquiries, the Putnam team "made the strategic decision to begin seeding and incepting track records" for SMAs, Forcione tells MFWire. Now they have seven equity model-based SMAs, with three-year track records, that earlier this fall launched on a wirehouse's platform and on a TAMP's. The SMAs invest directly in individual stocks.

The model SMAs include: U.S. large cap value equity, U.S. large cap growth equity, U.S. multi-cap core equity, sustainable leaders, sustainable future, U.S. small cap growth equity, and international durable equity.

Meanwhile, the Putnam team plans to launch six multi-asset model portfolios next month on the same TAMP's platform, Forcione says. The multi-asset model portfolios are risk-based and include: income, balanced income, conservative growth, balanced growth, growth, and aggressive growth, each with varying levels of equity exposure (ranging from zero to 100 percent). The model portfolios will invest in a mix of Putnam funds and third-party ETFs and are powered by Putnam's global asset allocation team, which currently handles about $15 billion in AUM. (Putnam had $177 billion in total AUM as of October 31.)

Looking ahead, Forcione confirms that the Putnam team is talking with broker-dealers about "thematic or customizable solutions, example in the sustainable investing space," but in multi-asset model portfolio form. On the SMA side, the first seven offerings are just a "starting point," Forcione says, and he expects to broaden that lineup out to include more of Putnam's equity strategies.

"Model-based solutions will really be a critically important space for our clients now and going into the future," Forcione says. "This initiative is of significant strategic importance to Putnam."

"The demand for strategies in the model delivery structure is rapidly increasing as advisors seek products that are fee-efficient and tailored to meet their clients' individual preference," Reynolds states. 

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