The latest news in investment offerings, financial products and other services relative to wealth advisors and their clients.

Legal & General Investment Management
In response to growing interest from investors, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), a European asset manager and global investor, has just launched a Short-Term Alternative Finance Fund which will sit on a newly-launched European Reserved Alternative Investment Fund (RAIF) platform.

The Luxembourg-based fund will invest in a portfolio of sub 1-year private credit assets, offering investors a strategic alternative to cash and other short-dated credit alternatives. The strategy will target attractive yields and low volatility, with an average investment grade rating, the firm said in a statement.

Types of short-dated alternative finance the fund could invest in include capital call facilities, supply chain finance, trade receivables and asset-backed financing. The fund will target a range of institutional investors, notably insurance companies, pension schemes, endowments and family offices, the firm continued.

Launched in 2021, LGIM’s first Short-Term Alternative Finance strategy, now manages over £1 billion ($1.26 billion) across short-dated strategies on behalf of a range of clients and allows third-party investors to invest alongside the Legal & General Group.  

All transactions for the fund are underwritten by LGIM’s alternative debt investment team, led by Matthew Taylor, with Sam Jones acting as joint fund manager.

“We believe short-dated alternative finance can provide an attractive solution for enhanced returns in comparison to liquidity funds or holding cash. It achieves this with low duration and volatility helping investors to maintain sufficient liquidity with potentially reduced risk when compared to other alternatives,” Taylor, head of alternative debt at LGIM, said.

Söderberg & Partners Asset Management
Nordic wealth manager Söderberg & Partners Asset Management has launched a new discretionary fund management (DFM) business which it believes will support advisors in meeting their obligations to provide value for clients under Consumer Duty rules.

There are three product ranges: Core, Sustainable Core, and Active Core, across four risk grades, the firm said in a statement. The three versions offer options for investors choosing between active and low cost, or a focus on sustainability. Each of these three core ranges has four different risk-graded model portfolios: Adventurous, Growth, Balanced and Cautious. The portfolios comprise active mutual funds and passive index tracking funds from leading asset managers, the firm continued.

The portfolios are available on Söderberg & Partners’ own advisor platform, as well as on selected platforms such as Aviva, Transact and Quilter.

Söderberg & Partners, which manages about £70 billion ($88 billion) of assets under management, announced its entry into the UK financial services marketplace last year, aiming to create investment solutions supported by next generation technology.