Putnam Investments, the Boston-based fund manager, has appointed Scott Sipple as head of strategic relationships.

In this newly-created role Mr Sipple will be focusing on communication with the asset management research platforms of wealth management firms, the company said in the statement. He will be working alongside William Connolly, the firm’s head of global distribution.

Mr Sipple will also play a role in coordinating the resources of Putnam’s investment, product, and relationship management areas, for developing awareness with wealth management partners.

Mr Sipple joins the firm from Fidelity Investments, where he headed the bank trust business unit, focusing on serving institutional bank clients nationally. Prior to that, he worked as managing director, head of managed accounts, senior portfolio management and analyst relations for AllianceBernstein Investment Research & Management.

"As wealth management firms increasingly embrace open architecture for clients and develop more transparent, proprietary research to support their advisors, we think it is important for Putnam to be able to supply these teams with a wide range of product information and insight on the firm," said Mr Connolly.

In other recent development, as WealthBriefing reported back in July Putnam Investments overhauled the pricing structure of its retail mutual funds, including lower management fees, use of performance fees, and fund family-wide breakpoints.