Bank of the West Wealth Management has launched a range of Bank of the West exchange-traded fund portfolios, which incorporate ETFs selected by the group’s investment advisory and management team.
They are designed to provide exposure to a global set of investment opportunities.
Combined with the bank’s recently launched mutual fund portfolios, the ETF portfolios mark the second major enhancement to its open architecture Investment Advisory Solutions (IAS) platform in the past several months. Previously, these portfolios were only available to the firm’s trust services clients.
According to John Morris, head of client solutions for Bank of the West’s Wealth Management Group and senior vice president, the bank’s asset allocation model drives the mutual fund and ETF portfolios and is informed with a global perspective gained through the firm’s relationship to its parent BNP Paribas, one of the world’s largest banks.
"Now more than ever, investing requires a global perspective. Given that our parent BNP Paribas has a presence in more than 80 countries, we’re uniquely positioned to leverage that insight and deliver on that mandate," says Morris. "At the same time, many investors are looking for more choice and investing options that can reposition as the markets change. These proprietary ETF portfolios will extrapolate meaningful information from around the globe and use that information to align the portfolios with the current market environment.”
The portfolios provide clients with a disciplined process that includes a range of risk tolerance-defined investment objectives, while also:
• Using proprietary asset allocation strategies
• Incorporating tactical asset allocation, which is the ability to make small adjustments over time in the face of a changing investment environment
• Including taxable and tax-efficient strategies, with the choice of California or national municipal bond exposure
• Offering 100 per cent equity or fixed income options for clients who seek exposure to only one or the other asset class
"In working with our clients we see that many investors are attracted to ETFs because they can combine tax efficiency and low expenses. We’re excited to incorporate ETFs into our new portfolios and offer them to a broader array of clients through our IAS platform," says Morris.
"The ETF portfolios complement what we believe are a substantial, open architecture suite of proprietary and non-proprietary investment products available at Bank of the West," says John Bahnken, head of the firm’s wealth management group and senior executive vice president. "We’re building on our commitment to offer bank clients solutions that have traditionally been the exclusive domain of institutions and high net worth investors.”
