In this month’s roundup, Vestmark supports Vanguard custom model portfolios; Dynasty expands its private markets business; CAIS expands alternatives options; TradePMR integrates with Artha; T. Rowe Price agrees to acquire F/m Investments; Victory Capital agrees to acquire First Eagle Investments; AdvizorPro examines ETF trends among RIAs; Orion adds BlackRock, Fidelity and Vanguard strategies; State Street reports $180 billion of August ETF inflows; Aqua launches an alternatives platform; HFR reports August hedge fund gains led by macro strategies; and Franklin Templeton, through Clarion Partners, agrees to acquire a majority stake in Stoneshield Capital.
Vestmark To Support Vanguard Custom Model Portfolios
Vestmark was selected by Vanguard to support Vanguard Custom Model Portfolios for RIAs, providing trading, tax-management and advisor-service capabilities. The offering lets advisors modify select Vanguard multi-asset and single-asset-class models to reflect client preferences involving investment products, asset classes and management styles while retaining Vanguard’s investment approach.
Vestmark’s infrastructure can support open-architecture portfolios combining mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, separately managed accounts, direct indexing and alternatives within a unified managed account. It also provides trading, rebalancing, tax-aware transitions and ongoing tax management, along with a white-labeled interface for account and performance views, proposals, service requests and tax-transition analyses. Vestmark said its technology supports more than $2 trillion in assets, over five million investor accounts and over 72,000 advisors.
“Vanguard has built its reputation around disciplined investing, low costs and long-term investor outcomes,” Karl Roessner, CEO of Vestmark, said. “By combining that investment expertise with Vestmark’s portfolio-management, trading and tax-management infrastructure, we can help RIAs deliver greater personalization without adding operational complexity. We are proud to support Vanguard as they bring this new offering to the RIA market.”
Dynasty Closes More Than $200 Million In Private Markets Funds
Dynasty Financial Partners said its Private Markets Investments Group closed more than $200 million across private markets funds during the prior nine months. That included Dynasty Growth Equity & Coinvest I, which closed at $110 million, above its $100 million target, and a special purpose vehicle that invested alongside Driven Capital in performance footwear company NOBULL at a $1 billion valuation.
Fundraising for Dynasty Growth Equity & Coinvest I began near the end of 2025 and closed in June. The fund targets high-growth private companies, while Dynasty said its NOBULL co-investment acquired roughly a 3% position. Dynasty is now targeting another opportunistic private fund and said it expects to offer a basket of private-market opportunities each year in both fund and direct-investment formats for firms in its RIA network.
“The successful close of these opportunities demonstrates the value of combining the scale of the Dynasty Network and our proprietary sourcing engine with access to institutional-grade private market opportunities,” Karim Simplis, Director of Private Markets at Dynasty Financial Partners, said. “As companies are staying private for longer and meaningful value creation has shifted from public markets to private markets, the thesis to invest in these potentially disruptive, high-growth private companies has played out well.”
CAIS Expands Alts Platform With Nearly 40 Managers’ Strategies
CAIS said nearly 40 new and existing alternative asset managers introduced strategies on its alternatives platform during the prior six months, expanding choices available to advisors. The additions spanned hedge funds, infrastructure, real estate and other alternative strategies, as CAIS continued to broaden the investment menu on a platform designed to help wealth managers access and implement alternative investments for client portfolios.
CAIS also reported increased first-quarter flows to exchange funds, hedge funds, infrastructure, real estate and tax-advantaged strategies, which it attributed to advisor demand for diversification and income. Managers adding strategies included AllianceBernstein, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Hamilton Lane, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, T. Rowe Price/Oak Hill Advisors, Veritas and Vista.
“Advisor needs continue to evolve, and we’re committed to building a marketplace that evolves with them,” Brad Walker, Co-President and Partner at CAIS, said. “By thoughtfully expanding access to leading managers and strategies, paired with robust education and technology that removes operational friction, we’re allowing advisors to construct portfolios that reflect today’s market environment and their clients’ long-term objectives.”
TradePMR Integrates Artha For Portfolio Scenario Analysis
TradePMR by Robinhood integrated its custodial technology with Artha, giving advisors that custody with TradePMR access to scenario-based portfolio analysis, optimization and rebalancing tools. Artha’s platform allows advisors to evaluate existing portfolios, build models and assess how allocations may behave under different macroeconomic environments involving interest rates, inflation, economic growth and geopolitical conditions.
Advisors can sign up with Artha and have client account and portfolio data imported from TradePMR’s Fusion platform through an application programming interface. From there, they can analyze portfolios and optimize allocations, rebalance and trade, or conduct tax-loss harvesting. TradePMR said participating advisors receive trial access and preferred pricing. Artha was built by Global Beta Advisors as a wealth management platform for portfolio construction and analysis.
“With the increasing complexity of markets and client demand for portfolio customization, advisors are looking for tools that help them evaluate portfolios across a range of possible macro scenarios rather and the ability to provide customization at scale,” Justin Lowry, Co-Founder, President and Chief Investment Officer of Artha, said. “Integrating with TradePMR allows us to make scenario-based portfolio construction and client customization easily accessible to their advisors.”
T. Rowe Price Agrees To Acquire F/m Investments
T. Rowe Price agreed to acquire F/m Investments, a fixed income asset manager and ETF specialist that had approximately $19 billion in assets under management (AUM) as of July 31. F/m manages assets across ETFs, institutional separate accounts and taxable and municipal separately managed accounts. The transaction is expected to close in early 2027.
F/m’s lineup includes 20 ETFs, including its U.S. Benchmark Series of single-security Treasury ETFs, as well as customized municipal and liquidity strategies for institutional and high net worth clients. T. Rowe Price said the acquisition would increase its fixed income AUM by nearly 9% and more than double its fixed income ETF AUM. Dechert served as legal counsel to T. Rowe Price. Oppenheimer & Co. served as exclusive financial adviser to F/m, while Fried Frank served as legal counsel to F/m’s majority owners.
“F/m Investments is a strong strategic and cultural fit with T. Rowe Price,” Arif Husain, Head of Global Fixed Income at T. Rowe Price, said. “The acquisition reflects a thoughtful, disciplined approach to expanding our capabilities in areas where we see durable client demand, clear strategic alignment, and the opportunity to create long-term value. F/m brings unique ETF product development capabilities that will complement T. Rowe Price’s active fixed income lineup across our Intermediary, Institutional, Retirement, and Wealth platforms.”
Victory Capital Agrees To Acquire First Eagle Investments
Victory Capital agreed to acquire First Eagle Investments for approximately $7 billion, including about $4.4 billion in cash and $2 billion of newly issued Victory equity. Victory also will assume roughly $575 million of First Eagle notes. First Eagle had approximately $222 billion in AUM as of July 31, and the firms expect the combined asset manager to have approximately $571 billion in total client assets at closing. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2027.
First Eagle is expected to retain its brand, investment-team autonomy and investment processes, while its roughly $41 billion collateralized loan obligation and alternative credit platform would become the combined company’s alternatives platform. Victory has committed financing from BofA Securities and RBC Capital Markets. PJT Partners and RBC advised Victory, with Willkie Farr as legal counsel. UBS Investment Bank and BofA advised First Eagle, with Ropes & Gray and Davis Polk providing legal counsel.
“I believe this transaction is a very positive development for First Eagle and, most importantly, for our clients. First Eagle’s distinctive investment teams will continue to operate autonomously, with no change to the investment philosophies and processes that have earned our clients’ confidence over time,” Mehdi Mahmud, President and CEO of First Eagle Investments, said. “Clients will also benefit from the materially larger distribution footprint of the combined entity.”
AdvizorPro Finds RIAs Broadening ETF Lineups
AdvizorPro’s second-quarter ETF Trends Report found that RIAs continued broadening their exchange-traded fund lineups. Across 5,398 RIAs included in both its first- and second-quarter snapshots, the average number of ETFs held per firm rose from 88.4 to 92.9. About 63.4% of firms increased their ETF count, compared with 18.2% that reduced it, producing a net increase of 24,744 ETF positions.
Technology showed the largest thematic gain, adding 230 net RIA holders, with semiconductor and AI strategies contributing to the increase. Commodity-focused ETFs lost 103 net RIA holders and digital-asset products lost 86. Among the 10 largest issuers, all gained RIA holders, led by Invesco with 95, Schwab with 85, First Trust with 79, VanEck with 70 and Dimensional with 64.
The report also found fewer ETFs appearing in RIA portfolios for the first time than in the first quarter. AdvizorPro counted 41 first-time tickers in the second-quarter data, compared with 140 in the prior quarter, with leveraged and inverse products prominent among the first-time tickers. Smaller issuers posted some of the fastest percentage growth in RIA holders, including EntrepreneurShares at 115.6%, Baron Capital at 83.3% and ProcureAM at 72.4%.
Orion Adds BlackRock, Fidelity And Vanguard Models
Orion added model portfolios from BlackRock, Fidelity Investments and Vanguard to Tailored Allocation Portfolios, which combines third-party investment models with Orion’s Custom Indexing technology for tax management and personalization. The additions bring the lineup to eight strategists, including Brinker-Main Management, First Trust Advisors, Frontier Asset Management, Janus Henderson and Russell Investments, since Orion launched the offering in October 2025.
Advisors can use standard or customized ETF and mutual fund models through the Custom Indexing framework and gradually transition concentrated, legacy or tax-sensitive positions into the selected model. Orion said Custom Indexing had surpassed $17.1 billion in AUM as of July 31. Tailored Allocation Portfolios are available through Orion Wealth Management, Orion Investment Portal, Wealth Advisory and Orion OCIO.
“Advisors want to build around the client in front of them without giving up the discipline of a professionally managed model,” Ron Pruitt, President of Orion Wealth Management, said. “With Tailored Allocation Portfolios, advisors can start from an investment philosophy they already trust while adapting portfolios to each client’s unique goals, preferences, and circumstances. That flexibility, combined with the ability to scale, is driving strong demand across the firms we serve.”
State Street Reports $180 Billion In August ETF Flows
State Street Investment Management reported $180 billion of inflows into U.S.-listed ETFs in August, roughly 3.8 times the historical August average. That lifted year-to-date inflows above $1.4 trillion. State Street said the result defied the month’s typical seasonal slowdown and put the industry within reach of surpassing the 2025 full-year inflow record of $1.52 trillion during September.
Bond ETFs attracted $55 billion in August, bringing year-to-date inflows to $407 billion and putting the category near the 2025 record of $448 billion. Equity ETFs gathered $103 billion, marking a fifth consecutive month above $100 billion. State Street also reported that emerging-market equity ETFs drew $6 billion during the month and had attracted a record $50 billion for the year through August.
Active ETFs gathered $62 billion in August, pushing year-to-date inflows above $500 billion, according to State Street. Active derivative-income and dividend-equity strategies combined for nearly $100 billion of inflows during the year. Sector flows moved in the opposite direction in some areas: technology ETFs lost about $6 billion and financial-sector ETFs lost nearly $5 billion, while health care ETFs attracted approximately $2.2 billion.
Aqua Launches Turnkey Alternatives Platform With $18.8 Million Funding
Aqua launched a turnkey alternative investments platform for wealth managers, RIAs, banks, trust companies and fund sponsors, while disclosing $18.8 million in total funding. The financing consisted of a $3.8 million seed round backed by Google’s AI Fund, Y Combinator and others, followed by a $15 million Series A led by Arthur Ventures with participation from Alumni Ventures.
The platform combines fund creation, operational workflows, investment lifecycle management, marketplace access, document intelligence and investor servicing in one environment. Aqua said it designed the system to help firms build, manage and scale alternatives programs rather than rely on separate marketplaces, spreadsheets and manual processes. The company plans to use the financing for business and platform development, expansion of engineering and partnership teams and deeper integrations with custodians and fund sponsors.
“Many firms still think a marketplace is the same thing as an alternatives strategy. It isn’t,” David Coyle, Head of Growth at Aqua, said. “Advisors need more than access to alternatives; they need a repeatable way to educate clients, manage operations, and deliver alternatives with confidence as part of a broader wealth strategy. Aqua is the enablement engine ushering in the next generation of alternative investing.”
HFR Reports Macro Hedge Funds Led August Gains
HFR reported that hedge funds gained in August after declining in July, with the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index rising an estimated 1.7%. Macro strategies led the advance as the HFRI Macro (Total) Index gained an estimated 4.1%. HFR’s Cryptocurrency Index rose an estimated 19.4%, its strongest month since November 2024, as managers navigated higher interest rates and continuing geopolitical uncertainty.
Within Macro, HFR’s Commodity Index surged an estimated 10.0%, its strongest monthly gain since the index began in January 2008. Active Trading gained 4.5%, Systematic Diversified/CTA rose 3.45% and Discretionary Thematic advanced 3.4%. About 70% of hedge funds posted positive August performance, while the spread between the top and bottom deciles narrowed to 15.2 percentage points. August 2026 index results were estimated as of Sept. 8.
“Successfully navigating intense compounding macroeconomic risks, hedge funds posted strong gains in August led by Macro strategies,” Kenneth J. Heinz, President of HFR, said. “While the outlook for equity and fixed income markets in 2H26 has become less clear as a result of recent volatility, the outlook for hedge fund performance has improved, with funds demonstrating performance uncorrelated or negatively correlated to recent shocks to equity, fixed income and commodity markets.”
Franklin Templeton To Acquire Majority Stake In Stoneshield
Franklin Templeton, through Clarion Partners, agreed to acquire a majority stake in Stoneshield Capital, a European real-assets manager with approximately $9 billion in AUM. Franklin said the transaction would triple Clarion’s European AUM to $13 billion, increase Clarion’s total AUM by 12% to $82 billion and lift Franklin Templeton’s alternatives AUM above $300 billion. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Stoneshield invests through closed-end opportunistic funds and a living and student-housing platform, with strategies focused on areas including digital infrastructure, science and innovation, hospitality and critical infrastructure. Co-founders Juan Pepa and Felipe Morenés will continue leading the business, which will become Clarion’s dedicated opportunistic European platform. The firms plan to develop additional strategies for institutional and wealth clients globally. Goldman Sachs International advised Stoneshield on the transaction.
“The addition of Stoneshield marks an important milestone in Clarion’s buildout of an integrated real assets capability across Europe,” David Gilbert, CEO and Chairman of Clarion Partners, said. “Stoneshield’s focus on high-yield, special situations investing is a perfect complement to our current offerings. This transaction expands our global investor relationships, broadens our product set, and underscores our long-term commitment to delivering strong performance and innovative investment solutions to our clients.”
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