Index strategist looks to boost sponsor uptake of product, service roster. Index-strategy developer IndexIQ has hired veteran wholesaler Henry Orvin to oversee its retail sales and distribution efforts.

IndexIQ says the move comes amid "a landmark shift to products based on alternatively weighted indexes among" exchange-traded fund (ETF) sponsors, mutual-fund companies, separately managed account platforms, and annuity providers."

Not so passive

In other words, sponsors are gravitating toward more specialized index products that, because of the selection processes that go into devising them, are more focused on generating alpha.

By hiring Orvin, year-old IndexIQ hopes to increase uptake of its core offering of quantitative-indexing products as well as its ETF portfolio products and its hedge-fund replication products among large investment- and annuity-product distributors as well as registered investment advisors and family offices.

"Henry joins the IndexIQ team at a very exciting time in our history, as our quantitative solutions continue to generate strong customer interest," says IndexIQ's CEO Adam Patti. "With his significant experience in sales and relationship management, we are confident that Henry will be a valuable addition as we continue to position ourselves as the leading supplier of innovative indexing products and sophisticated quantitative solutions across multiple product categories."

Though his firm doesn't use IndexIQ products, Steven Persky, CEO of Los Angeles-based Dalton Investments, agrees that there's a move afoot toward "value-tilted" index strategies based on the fundamental characteristics of the underlying stocks rather than the traditional market-cap-weighted approach.

Patti says that IndexIQ's product methodologies don't result in a value tilt per se because its product suite includes all style-box categories.

Before joining IndexIQ Orvin was head of retail distribution and relationship management at New York-based ETF manager XTF. Before that, he spent about 15 years at Lincoln Financial, where he was responsible for developing and maintaining relations with big-name distributors like Merrill Lynch and Smith Barney. -FWR

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