SANTA MONICA, Calif., June 19, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leveraging its four decades of experience in creating asset allocation strategies, selecting managers, and constructing investment portfolios to meet the needs of its institutional investor clients, Wilshire Associates Incorporated ("Wilshire®"), a diversified global financial services firm, today announced the launch of Wilshire Managed Portfolios, which will be available to registered investment advisors (RIAs)s and independent broker dealers.
Wilshire Managed Portfolios are the newest offering of Wilshire Funds Management, the global investment management business unit of Wilshire that traditionally has centered its services on translating institutional expertise into customized investment advisory solutions for financial intermediaries.
"Building on our success in the intermediary space, Wilshire is now giving independent broker dealers and RIAs access to the type of investment discipline used by sophisticated institutional investors via a series of turnkey managed portfolios, the Wilshire Managed Portfolios," noted Jamie Ohl, president, Wilshire Funds Management. "Through these portfolios, financial advisors get access to sophisticated asset allocation structures, leading institutional-caliber investment managers and market leading risk management expertise.
"A recognized leader in the field of manager research, we are utilizing four decades of experience to identify and select investment managers capable of delivering consistent risk-adjusted performance. As an early pioneer in the field of quantitative research and risk management, assessing and managing risk is in Wilshire's DNA," Ohl added.
"Wilshire Managed Portfolios feature the best of traditional and alternative asset classes as well as high quality managers that have been scrutinized by Wilshire's manager research team which is supported by the same quantitative tools and risk management that have been the foundation of Wilshire's institutional capabilities for 40 years," stated Jason Schwarz, managing director, Wilshire Associates.
"Employing the sophisticated, disciplined and risk-focused approach the firm has developed for our institutional investor clients, Wilshire Managed Portfolios provide financial advisors and their clients with a series of risk-appropriate investment solutions featuring ongoing oversight including regular rebalancing, reallocation and risk reviews by Wilshire's team of investment professionals."
Wilshire Managed Portfolios provide two practical solutions to advisors – a simple, but highly credible, method for giving clients exposure to liquid alternatives and a low cost, high-quality product offering for smaller client accounts.
Wilshire Global Alternatives Portfolio is a stand-alone liquid alternatives portfolio investing in 5-7 different alternatives asset classes through actively managed mutual funds. This portfolio is created to target a specific level of risk and can be incorporated by advisors into established strategic asset allocation portfolios to help improve the risk return tradeoff.
Wilshire Global Diversified Alternatives Portfolios takes alternative investing to the next logical step – creating six risk-based strategic models that combine long only asset classes (stocks and bonds) with alternatives. "We believe that the Wilshire Global Alternatives Portfolio and the Wilshire Global Diversified Alternative Portfolios give financial advisors all the tools necessary to confidently invest client assets into alternatives while maintaining the client's established asset allocation strategy," commented Schwarz.
Wilshire Allocation Builder Portfolios are five risk-based strategic asset allocation models employing multiple mutual fund portfolios. They are available for as little as $10,000 and have no strategist fee. Smaller accounts can now have access to all the institutional expertise that Wilshire Associates provides some of the world's largest pension plans and endowments.
Financial advisors interested in learning more about Wilshire Managed Portfolios can email managedportfolios@wilshire.com or call Jason Schwarz at (310) 260-6679
About Wilshire Associates
Wilshire Associates ("Wilshire®"), a leading global, independent investment consulting and services firm, provides consulting services, analytics solutions and customized investment products to plan sponsors, investment managers and financial intermediaries. Its business units include, Wilshire Analytics, Wilshire Consulting, Wilshire Funds Management and Wilshire Private Markets.
The firm was founded in 1972, revolutionizing the industry by pioneering the application of investment analytics and research to investment management for the institutional marketplace. Wilshire also is credited with helping to develop the field of quantitative investment analysis that uses mathematical tools to analyze market risks. All other business units evolved from Wilshire's strong analytics foundation. Wilshire developed the Wilshire 5000 Total Market IndexSM and became an early innovator in creating the industry's integrated asset/liability analysis/simulation models as well as the industry's practical models in risk budgeting through beta and active risk analysis. Wilshire has grown to a firm of more than 300 employees serving the investment needs of institutional clients around the world.
Based in Santa Monica, California, Wilshire provides services to clients in more than 20 countries representing more than 500 organizations. With ten offices on four continents, Wilshire Associates and its affiliates are dedicated to providing clients with the highest quality counsel, products and services. Wilshire is a registered service mark of Wilshire Associates Incorporated. Please visit http://www.wilshire.com/.