Investment Product and Service Launches

Harbor Offers Robeco Equity Funds to U.S. Clients

Harbor Capital Advisors has selected five Robeco quantitative equity funds to offer to its clients in the U.S.

The funds included are the Robeco Conservative Equity funds (Global, U.S., Global excluding U.S. and Emerging Markets) and one Robeco Active Quant fund (emerging markets). Harbor will launch these as mutual funds under dual Harbor Robeco branding.

“We are excited to have been selected by Harbor Capital Advisors, and look forward to working together,” says Maureen Beshar, head of Robeco U.S. and Canada. “While Harbor and Robeco have a long history, it is this history that makes the relationship remarkable. Given Harbor’s truly independent nature and the relationship between the companies, we had to prove even more that Robeco was the right choice. Harbor is known for its meticulous due diligence process, so being selected is another vote of confidence for our quant equity product range.”

Robeco U.S. focuses on the largest asset owners and mandate business in the country, whereas Harbor offers investment options to a different client group. Robeco and Harbor Capital Advisors are sister companies in the ORIX Europe holding.

E*TRADE Enhances Stock Plan Administration Platform

E*TRADE Financial Corporate Services, Inc. has announced a series of reporting and automation enhancements to its stock plan administration platform, Equity Edge Online (EEO).

The company’s first enhancement will be report bursting and file sharing functionality, allowing stock plan administrators to run certain participant reports and statements in EEO and deliver them as customized PDFs to participants on etrade.com. The company says the feature saves clients time and mailing costs, while providing access to grant and plan information for participants.

Administrators will also be able to customize retirement eligibility (RE) for shares on a grant-by-grant basis for an unlimited number of eligibility dates. Additionally, RE taxation is integrated within EEO’s existing taxation framework. The participant experience will also be streamlined—their unvested shares are automatically withheld to help cover potential tax liabilities. Participants will be allowed to see their retirement eligibility tax obligations through automatically generated confirmations on etrade.com that break down Medicare, Social Security, federal, and state taxes. 

The final enhancement, ESPP share withholding, permits administrators to flag participants foreseen to have a taxable event during their ESPP purchase. Administrators can withhold shares to cover the participant’s tax obligations. Participants can alleviate the need to pay taxes with cash and limit the impact to their paycheck.

“Through our latest enhancements we’re equipping administrators with flexible, customizable solutions—enabling them to meet the needs of participants like never before,” says Scott Whatley, president of E*TRADE Corporate Services. “Stock plan administrators are constantly challenged to do more with less, so we are relentless in our pursuit to deliver an industry-leading platform that transforms manual and time-consuming processes into automated tasks. This way, administrators can spend more time delivering value-added services and boosting participant engagement.”

T.Rowe Price Presents China Evolution Equity Fund

T. Rowe Price has launched the T. Rowe Price China Evolution Equity Fund. The fund will seek long-term growth of capital through investments in Chinese companies. This launch marks T. Rowe Price’s first mutual fund focused solely on Chinese equities.

The fund mainly invests in companies in the bottom 50% of China’s combined market cap (of which more than 98% are listed companies), rather than in the top 50 index heavyweights.

The China Evolution Equity Fund will be managed by Wenli Zheng, a portfolio manager at T. Rowe Price with 11 years of investment experience.

“China is undergoing unprecedented changes, including an evolving economic model, industrial upgrades, and a shifting geopolitical outlook,” says Zheng. “These changes have created an investment landscape with ample mispricing opportunities. The China Evolution Equity Fund looks to exploit these opportunities through a style-agnostic approach unconstrained by an index.”

The fund’s primary benchmark will be the MSCI China All Shares Index Net. The net expense ratio is 1.40% for the Investor Class shares (Ticker: TCELX). This net expense ratio includes an agreement that limits the class’s total expenses from exceeding 1.40%, which will remain in effect through February 28, 2022. 

The net expense ratio is 1.04% for the I Class shares (Ticker: TRCLX). This net expense ratio includes an agreement that limits the class’s operating expenses to 0.05%, also remaining in effect through February 28, 2022. 

The fund’s minimum initial investment amounts are $2,500 for Investor Class shares and $1,000,000 for I Class shares.

CCA Selects Northern Trust for Fund Administration

Corry Capital Advisors (CCA) has appointed Northern Trust to provide fund administration and related services for CCA’s U.S. commingled funds.

Pittsburgh-based CCA selected Northern Trust earlier this year to provide fund administration and depositary services for Irish-domiciled funds to support its expansion into Europe and distribution of its longevity-based life settlement strategies to new investors.

“Northern Trust has provided exceptional client service and broad-based capabilities across asset classes and investment strategies,” says William Corry, founder and general manager of Corry Capital Advisors. “We look forward to expanding our relationship through this new mandate for our U.S. funds.”

“CCA’s selection of Northern Trust to provide fund administration for its U.S. commingled funds demonstrates the seamless nature of our global service model,” says Kimberly Evans, head of Private Capital Administration in North America. “By providing superior client service and support for CCA in Ireland, Northern Trust gave our clients confidence that we are best positioned to administer their funds in the U.S. We look forward to continuing to partner with CCA to help them achieve their strategic goals.”