Family Office
AST Trust taps indexer to oversee ETFs
Trust-service provider likes XTF's collective structure.
Trust-service outsourcer AST Trust Company has appointed XTF
Advisors to manage exchange-traded-fund (ETF) portfolios that are
part of retirement plans. These ETF collective trusts will be
available to qualified plan sponsors through financial advisors
and third-party administrators.
Steve Ferber, executive v.p. of collective-fund services at AST,
says XTF got the nod because of its cost-effectiveness and its
user-friendly collective fund structure.
Collective funds are similar to mutual funds, but they are
available only to qualified retirement plans such as 401(k)s. The
availability of collective funds means that ETFs and ETF-based
portfolios now are available on retirement-plan platforms, which
may result in lower costs when compared with actively or
passively managed mutual funds.
XTF Advisors, a new York-based investment-platform provider to
financial advisors of all stripes says it has a track record of
administering actively managed ETF portfolios. By re-allocating
assets to minimize risk, XTF enhances the overall performance of
a portfolio and therefore the benefits available to the
investor.
"We see this choice as a right step toward helping Americans reap
attractive benefits and returns from their retirement savings
programs, based on their own particular risk profiles," says
XTF's chairman and CEO Sander Gerber.
According to its agreement with AST, XTF will be in charge of
creating portfolios, determining risk and allocating assets, as
well as rebalancing the portfolio when and as needed. AST will
act as a trustee to the funds.
Phoenix, Ariz.-based AST is a directed trustee,
trust-administration and back-office trust-service provider to
registered investment advisors, family offices and other
financial advisors. It is a division of American Stock Transfer &
Trust Company, a New York-based stock-transfer and trust company
that administers more than six million shareholder accounts on
behalf of more than 2,500 public-company equity issuers. -FWR
.
