SEI’s Advisors’ Inner Circle Fund Expands Platform to Service Auction Funds

OAKS, Pa., May 18, 2020 – SEI (NASDAQ: SEIC) today announced its Advisors’ Inner Circle Fund® Trust (AIC) platform now provides asset managers the opportunity to launch Auction Funds within its turnkey operational infrastructure. 

The AIC platform’s expansion allows managers to efficiently launch Auction Funds, a new investment structure designed to provide financial advisors and accredited investors with access to private market assets, including private equity, real estate, infrastructure and private credit. Registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (’40 Act), Auction Funds provide investors with an opportunity to periodically sell their shares through an auction process offered by Nasdaq Private Market. This feature addresses the disadvantages of generations of “interval-like” funds, such as performance cash drag, redemption gates and infrequent liquidity options. Auction Funds also provide asset managers in private markets a unique opportunity to operate continuously offered permanent capital funds for both institutional and accredited investors. 

“Auction Funds are designed to provide portfolio diversification via alternative asset classes with liquidity not available in current private or registered fund structures,” said John Alshefski, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of SEI’s Investment Manager Services division (IMS). “As sophisticated advisors and accredited investors continue to seek opportunities to invest in private markets, auction funds enable them to further diversify their portfolios and provide additional ways to accumulate alpha.” 

Similar to its services supporting mutual funds, ETFs and closed-end funds, the AIC will provide asset managers seeking to launch an Auction Fund the opportunity to leverage SEI’s flexible operating structure and service solution. The platform includes an independent board of trustees and a scalable infrastructure that encompasses fund administration, accounting, compliance and investor servicing. Since its inception, the AIC platform has grown to represent one of the nation’s largest series trust with more than $62 billion in assets across 132 funds on behalf of 46 investment advisors as of March 31, 2020.  

“The Advisors’ Inner Circle Fund Trust can address the many facets and specific requirements of Auction Funds,” said Mike Beattie, Managing Director of IMS and President of The Advisors’ Inner Circle Fund Trust. “The AIC platform provides managers with cost-effective access to legal counsel, a CCO, a strategic relationship manager, and some of the industry’s best auditors and custodians. Additionally, managers will benefit from sharing trust-level expenses with other platform members, making it a cost-effective means of launching new funds.”

SEI helped pioneer the series trust concept more than 28 years ago by introducing the Advisors’ Inner Circle Fund Trust via an institutional-quality turnkey mutual fund operating platform. The AIC platform enables investment organizations to rapidly launch and grow ’40 Act funds, whether they are mutual funds, exchange traded funds or auction funds, without having to build their own operating infrastructure. The solution is also designed for asset managers seeking a more cost-effective way to operate their existing mutual funds, ETFs and liquid alternatives funds. 

About SEI’s Investment Manager Services Division
Investment Manager Services supplies investment organizations of all types with advanced operating infrastructure they must have to evolve and compete in a landscape of escalating business challenges. SEI’s award-winning global operating platform provides investment managers and asset owners with customized and integrated capabilities across a wide range of investment vehicles, strategies and jurisdictions. Our services enable users to gain scale and efficiency, keep pace with marketplace demands, and run their businesses more strategically. SEI partners with more than 550 traditional and alternative asset managers, as well as sovereign wealth managers and family offices, representing over $24.5 trillion in assets, including 45 of the top 100 asset managers worldwide. For more information, visit seic.com/ims. 

About SEI
After 50 years in business, SEI (NASDAQ:SEIC) remains a leading global provider of investment processing, investment management, and investment operations solutions that help corporations, financial institutions, financial advisors, and ultra-high-net-worth families create and manage wealth. As of March 31, 2020, through its subsidiaries and partnerships in which the company has a significant interest, SEI manages, advises or administers $920 billion in hedge, private equity, mutual fund and pooled or separately managed assets, including $283 billion in assets under management and $632 billion in client assets under administration. For more information, visit seic.com.