In this month’s roundup, MyVest partnered with bondIT, iCapital and Envestnet expanded their partnership, AssetMark enhanced its program for in-plan advice, Citi Wealth selected Advyzon for a global UMA program, Halo and Ironlight announced a tokenized structured notes collaboration, Raymond James hired Kristi Higgins as Head of ETF Strategy, 55ip added T. Rowe Price custom models, HFR reported hedge fund industry capital reached $5.22 trillion, iShares published fixed income ETF research, Morningstar examined semiliquid fund portfolio overlap and liquidity risks, BetaNXT launched a voting solution, and SEI and Carlyle expanded their private markets partnership.
Editor in Chief's Take:
Fixed income is finding its way back into the spotlight: According to BlackRock’s iShares, bond ETFs are growing rapidly as fixed income’s role in portfolios broadens. Likely in response to this trend, MyVest and bondIT announced a partnership to improve fixed income tax awareness, portfolio optimization and trading. Regardless of the new Fed Chair, we can expect fixed income to stay, which means we will see more innovation in this space.
– Julius Buchanan, Editor in Chief, Wealth Solutions Report
MyVest And bondIT Launch Fixed Income Partnership
MyVest and bondIT launched a partnership designed to provide personalized, tax-efficient fixed income portfolio solutions and trading for institutions, wealth management organizations and advisors. The companies said the integration will support fixed income model construction, automated portfolio optimization and tailored trade proposals based on real-time market conditions, each client’s existing holdings and stated goals.
The partnership is intended to combine fixed income portfolio construction and execution on a single platform for advisors, portfolio managers and traders. It will provide order routing, liquidity across market sources, bond search, click-to-trade functionality, customized bond ladders, credit analysis, and sensitivity and scenario analysis.
Brian Marchiel, Chief Product Officer of MyVest, said, “In the face of a rapidly growing demand for fixed income, MyVest has continued to innovate by enhancing its fixed income portfolio construction, analytics, and trading at a juncture when it’s never been more important. We’re excited to deepen our fixed income services at a time when demand continues to increase.”
iCapital And Envestnet Expand UMA Partnership
iCapital and Envestnet expanded their strategic partnership to give advisors access to iCapital’s alternative investments capabilities within Envestnet’s UMA platform. Advisors can use iCapital’s technology through Envestnet to incorporate alternatives and structured investments alongside public market holdings in a single account structure.
The enhanced capability provides workflows for portfolio construction, implementation and oversight. It includes single sign-on access and builds on recent Envestnet onboarding of two iCapital-managed products: iDPC, a private credit fund, and ODS, a structured investments SMA.
Gary Gallagher, President of iCapital, said, “As alternatives increasingly become a core component of portfolios, advisors need a practical way to implement them alongside traditional assets. Embedding iCapital into Envestnet’s UMA platform allows advisors to incorporate alternatives and structured investments within a single account structure, supporting diversification, scale, consistency, and day-to-day execution across client portfolios.”
AssetMark Enhances Self-Directed Brokerage Account Program
AssetMark announced an enhanced Self-Directed Brokerage Account (SDBA) program designed to help advisors deliver professional in-plan investment advice and portfolio management for client assets held in workplace retirement plans. The program was available to AssetMark advisors beginning in April and is intended to address structural, operational and advisory fee barriers.
The enhanced SDBA structure includes 10 diversified, professionally managed mutual fund strategies designed for in-plan retirement accounts. AssetMark said approximately 40% of employer-sponsored retirement plans offer an SDBA option, while only about 2.4% of participants use one, despite employer-sponsored retirement plans holding more than $12 trillion in assets.
David McNatt, Chief Wealth Solutions Officer at AssetMark, said, “There is significant demand from investors for in-plan advice. We redesigned our SDBA approach to remove many of the structural hurdles that have hindered advisors from addressing this demand, including adding professionally managed investment strategies covering multi-asset classes and a comprehensive program that addresses complexities associated with account opening, consolidated reporting and advisor fee billing.”
Citi Wealth Selects Advyzon For Global UMA Program
Citi Wealth announced an agreement with Advyzon Enterprise Solutions and Advyzon Investment Management to deliver a global Unified Managed Account (UMA) program for Citi Wealth clients. The program will support Citi Private Bank, Wealth at Work, Citigold and Citigold Private Client groups across North America, Latin America, EMEA and APAC.
The program will bring ETFs, mutual funds, SMAs, alternative investments and other investment solutions into one account structure. Citi said the program will include multi-currency capabilities, onshore and offshore structures, home office portfolios, BlackRock-supported Citi Portfolio Solutions, account opening, one agreement, one fee and client reporting.
Keith Glenfield, Head of Investment Solutions at Citi Wealth, said, “Citi Wealth is excited about our strategic partnership with Advyzon to further enhance our differentiated global advisory offering to clients around the world. We believe that this is truly an industry innovation and a unique investment program, considering the global reach and combination of capabilities.”
Halo And Ironlight Collaborate On Tokenized Notes
Halo Investing and Ironlight Group announced a strategic collaboration to list structured notes, with notes priced and managed in partnership on Halo’s platform and tokenized issuances made available through Ironlight’s digital securities infrastructure.
The companies said the infrastructure supports issuance, trading and lifecycle management of digital securities under applicable U.S. regulations. The collaboration is intended to reduce operational complexity, streamline structured note administration and broaden availability for eligible investors.
Jason Barsema, Co-Founder and President of Halo Investing, said, “Tokenization is a further step in Halo’s commitment to helping deliver more efficient, transparent, liquid, and innovative solutions to investors of all wallet sizes. This partnership with Ironlight is not just focused on the United States – it is designed for markets around the world, and it is only the beginning.”
Raymond James Investment Management Hires Kristi Higgins As Head Of ETF Strategy
Raymond James Investment Management appointed Kristi Higgins as Head of ETF Strategy. Higgins will support development and expansion of the firm’s active ETF platform, report to Johan Grahn, Head of ETFs, and work with the product organization overseen by Matt Johnson, Head of Commercial Strategy.
Higgins has helped bring more than 30 ETFs to market across asset classes. Raymond James Investment Management, which has $115 billion in assets, currently offers three actively managed ETFs through Eagle Asset Management: RJVI, RJDI and RJMI.
Johnson said, “We are excited to welcome Kristi at an important moment for our business. Active ETFs are a central pillar of our long-term product strategy, and we are leaning in with conviction. We see a significant opportunity to bring the differentiated capabilities of our boutique managers into the ETF structure in a way that better serves advisors and their clients. Kristi’s experience building ETF platforms makes her an ideal partner as we scale our ETF capabilities.”
55ip Adds T. Rowe Price Custom Models
55ip expanded its investment platform through a collaboration with T. Rowe Price to provide custom models to advisors. The models combine T. Rowe Price strategies with 55ip’s ActiveTax Technology, including tax-aware transitions and withdrawals, as well as ongoing tax-loss harvesting.
The companies said 55ip and T. Rowe Price will jointly support distribution and servicing of the models. T. Rowe Price had $1.71 trillion in assets under management (AUM) as of March 31, and offers equity, fixed income, alternatives and multi-asset investment capabilities.
Mike Camp, Head of Client Solutions at 55ip, said, “The addition of T. Rowe Price to our platform expands the range of asset management options and personalized solutions available to advisors. We believe combining T. Rowe Price’s custom models with 55ip’s tax technology creates a powerful solution that can strengthen advisors’ businesses and improve client outcomes after taxes.”
HFR Reports Hedge Fund Capital Record
HFR reported that total global hedge fund industry capital reached a record $5.22 trillion in the first quarter of 2026, marking the 14th consecutive quarterly increase. Industry capital grew by $64 billion during the quarter, driven by estimated net asset inflows of $44.5 billion.
The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index added 1.05% in the first quarter, while the HFRI Macro (Total) Index rose 4.9% and the HFRI Relative Value (Total) Index advanced 1.4%. HFR said the HFRI EH: Energy/Basic Materials Index rose 8.4%, while the HFRI Macro: Systematic Diversified Index gained 7.0%.
Kenneth J. Heinz, President of HFR, said, “The second half of the Jekyll-and-Hyde first quarter was dominated by dizzying, headline-driven dislocations and disruptions across energy, shipping, currency, interest rate, cryptocurrency, credit, AI and equity markets. Despite these challenges, hedge funds posted performance gains in the first quarter, while investors increased allocations to hedge funds not only in response to these volatile market micro-cycles, but as a mechanism to reduce overall portfolio volatility and to opportunistically position for the rapidly changing cycles.”
iShares Publishes Bond ETF Research
iShares published a fixed income ETF white paper arguing that bond ETFs have become a central part of modern portfolio construction as yields remain higher and portfolios expand into private markets, digital assets and thematic exposures. The paper said bond ETFs now serve as scalable, transparent and liquid tools across indexed, active, systematic and outcome-oriented strategies.
The report said global bond ETF assets have more than doubled since 2020 to more than $3 trillion, with $669 billion in flows in 2025 and first-quarter 2026 flows nearly 30% higher than in the first quarter of 2025. It also said approximately 60% of global fixed income assets yielded above 4% as of February, compared with less than 20% in 2019.
Stephen Laipply, Global Co-Head of iShares Fixed Income ETFs at BlackRock; Karen Veraa-Perry, U.S. Head of iShares Fixed Income Product Strategy; Vasiliki Pachatouridi, EMEA Head of iShares Fixed Income Product Strategy; and Hui Sien Koay, APAC Head of iShares Fixed Income Product Strategy, authored the report.
Morningstar Examines Semiliquid Fund Risks
Morningstar Manager Research published “How Private Is Your Private Portfolio?” The report focused on portfolio overlap, sector concentration and liquidity management across semiliquid funds, including direct lending and other private asset strategies.
Morningstar found that semiliquid private asset funds can have meaningful overlap with each other and with public or broadly syndicated markets. As one example, Morningstar said software represented about 27% of invested assets across the 500 largest holdings in private credit funds, compared with 6% for the S&P 500 and about 25% for the Morningstar LSTA U.S. Leveraged Loan 100 Index.
Jack Shannon, Principal, Equity Strategies, U.S., Morningstar Manager Research, authored the report. The report said cash management is critical for semiliquid funds, because too much cash can drag performance while too little can create liquidity risk.
BetaNXT Teams With Tumelo, Supports Vanguard Investor Choice
BetaNXT announced that its pass-through voting solution, developed with stewardship technology firm Tumelo, is live in support of Vanguard Investor Choice. The technology is designed to expand access for eligible investors to participate in Vanguard Investor Choice and express proxy voting preferences on corporate governance matters.
The solution combines BetaNXT and Tumelo technology to support end-to-end collection and application of investor voting preferences within proxy voting. BetaNXT said its technology can integrate into existing proxy voting environments and be deployed in client-branded workflows across asset managers, brokers and advisors.
Chris Nobles, Division Executive for Mediant, a BetaNXT business, said, “We are pleased to be in the position to support Vanguard’s efforts to expand its Investor Choice program. Our goal is to provide firms with customizable pass-through voting capabilities that align with their operating models while allowing investors to have a voice.”
SEI And Carlyle Expand Private Markets Partnership
SEI and Carlyle announced an enhanced partnership to expand access to private market capabilities across wealth and retirement channels, including development of new collaborative solutions. The firms said the partnership is intended to support more efficient and scalable private market implementation as advisors seek broader access to private market strategies.
The partnership builds on a multi-year relationship between Carlyle and SEI and combines Carlyle’s private markets capabilities with SEI’s research, implementation and client delivery resources. The firms said they will seek to develop private market solutions for wealth and retirement investors, including model portfolios and defined contribution market strategies.
Michael Lane, Head of Asset Management at SEI, said, “One of the most common questions we hear from clients is how to allocate to private markets. Our objective with Carlyle is to help simplify that decision by providing more streamlined access to a broader range of strategies. SEI’s heritage in manager research and private market allocation, combined with Carlyle’s strength as a leading originator and investor, can help support clients as private markets continue to evolve.”
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