Smartleaf, a leading provider of overlay portfolio management solutions to banks and financial services companies, announced that US Bank has chosen it to provide a unified overlay platform for its non-brokerage wealth management investment relationships managed through The Private Client Reserve and Private Client Group.
Smartleaf, which has provided overlay solutions for U.S. Bank's non-brokerage Unified Managed Account (UMA) program since 2007, was selected due to that program's success and the desire to extend Smartleaf's efficiency, tax management and client customization features. U.S. Bank's portfolio managers now have the Smartleaf tool to help them in the management of over 40,000 client portfolios.
"We analyzed Smartleaf's performance as the foundation for our UMA program, and were impressed by its ability to simultaneously provide client investment preference customization, a high degree of tax efficiency, consistency, and the ability to view and respond to each account's needs daily," said Tim Leach, Chief Investment Officer for the U.S. Bank Wealth Management Group. "Portfolio managers using the Smartleaf system are excited to take further advantage of Smartleaf by making it the common platform for our non-brokerage investment management portfolios."
U.S. Bank, the country's fifth largest commercial bank and a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB), first offered a Unified Managed Account with overlay in early 2007, using Smartleaf's overlay solution. With the expanded use of the Smartleaf system, U.S. Bank will manage portfolios that combine individual equities, individual fixed income securities, mutual funds, ETFs, structured notes and other securities in a single portfolio that benefits from both proprietary and third-party research/models.
"U.S. Bank has observed the efficiency benefits and client service improvements that overlay management delivers," said Jerry Michael, President of Smartleaf. "Expanding this program will enable U.S. Bank to offer a highly differentiated service. It represents the logical next step in how banks and financial services companies can better manage their clients' wealth."