Fort Washington Investment Advisors, Inc. (Fort Washington) is expanding its capabilities with the addition of new investment strategies, investment professionals and offices in Albany, N.Y., and San Francisco to support its growing asset management business.
Earlier today, Touchstone Investments (Touchstone) named Fort Washington as subadvisor to several new funds following the Oct. 30 completion of its acquisition of the Sentinel mutual funds, formerly managed by an affiliate of National Life Insurance Company. Approximately $4.4 billion in new assets under management from Touchstone Funds brings Fort Washington's total assets under management to $55.8 billion.1
"Fort Washington has extensive investment capabilities in fixed income, private and public equity, and wealth management," said Maribeth S. Rahe, president and chief executive officer for Fort Washington. "Touchstone's selection of Fort Washington as subadvisor for several of its funds helps deepen the already strong relationship Touchstone has with Fort Washington."
Effective immediately, the Sentinel associates who managed the Sentinel Small Company Fund and the Sentinel International Equity Fund will continue in their roles as investment professionals with Fort Washington, subadvisor for the newly created Touchstone Small Company Fund and the Touchstone International Equity Fund, respectively. The addition of these highly qualified professionals adds to the existing breadth and depth of expertise Fort Washington already has across a wide range of asset classes. The firm will introduce the Small Company and International Equity strategies to the institutional marketplace as separate account complements to the aforementioned, newly created Touchstone mutual funds.
Fort Washington's Small Company team will be based in Albany and includes Senior Portfolio Manager Jason Ronovech, CFA, Senior Equity Analyst Mark Militello, CFA, and Senior Equity Analyst E.G. Woods, CFA. The firm's International Equity team will be based in San Francisco and includes Senior Portfolio Manager Andrew Boczek, Senior Equity Analyst Lawrence Lee, CFA, CMT, CAIA, and Senior Equity Analyst Jamie Chui, CFA.
"The introduction of our Small Company and International Equity strategies is the direct result of the expertise Jason, Andrew, and their talented teams bring to Fort Washington," said Rahe. "We are delighted that they are joining us to serve existing and new clients while building upon their proven performance track records."
Fort Washington will also sub-advise the newly created Touchstone Large Cap Focused Fund led by Jamie E. Wilhelm, managing director and head of Public Equity at Fort Washington and current manager of the Touchstone Focused Fund. The new Touchstone Balanced Fund will be sub-advised by Fort Washington and led by Timothy J. Policinski, managing director and senior portfolio manager.
Assets of the Sentinel Government Securities Fund and Total Return Bond Fund will merge into the existing Touchstone Active Bond Fund, also managed by Policinski. Assets of the Sentinel Low Duration Bond Fund will move into the Touchstone Ultra Short Duration Fixed Income Fund, currently sub-advised by Fort Washington and led by Scott Weston, managing director and senior portfolio manager.
1 Includes assets under management by Fort Washington of $52.4 billion and $3.46 billion in commitments managed by Fort Washington Capital Partners Group (FW Capital), a division, and Peppertree Partners LLC, a subsidiary.
About Fort Washington Investment Advisors, Inc.
Fort Washington Investment Advisors, Inc. (Fort Washington), founded in May 1990, is the money management and primary investment arm of its parent company, Western & Southern Financial Group with more than $51.3 billion in assets as of 09/30/17.* Fort Washington is a registered investment advisor with expertise in fixed income, public equity and private equity. Clients include institutions and high-net-worth individuals throughout the country. For more information, call 513-361-7600, 888-244-8167 or visit FortWashington.com.
*Includes assets under management by Fort Washington of $47.89 billion and $3.46 billion in commitments managed by Fort Washington Capital Partners Group (FW Capital), a division, and Peppertree Partners LLC, a subsidiary. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
About Touchstone Investments
Touchstone Investments is a Distinctively Active mutual fund company committed to providing investors with access to institutional asset managers who act in a sub-advisory capacity. Managed by sub-advisors with high conviction, concentrated portfolios, Touchstone's entire equity fund lineup is composed of high Active Share funds, which means their holdings are highly differentiated from their benchmarks. Touchstone's sub-advisor selection and monitoring approach is built upon the conviction that an asset manager's organizational stability, quality of its personnel, adherence to its investment discipline and infrastructure represent the elements of repeatable, value-added performance results over time. This philosophy has resulted in a diverse but focused product offering that gives investors a full breadth of investment options across styles and asset classes. The Touchstone Funds are advised by Touchstone Advisors, Inc., a registered investment advisor, and are distributed nationally through intermediaries, including broker-dealers, financial planners and institutions by Touchstone Securities, Inc., a registered broker-dealer and member FINRA/SIPC. Touchstone, Touchstone Funds and Touchstone Investments are federal service mark registrations and applications owned by IFS Financial Services, Inc. Touchstone Securities, Inc., Touchstone Advisors, Inc., and IFS Financial Services, Inc., are members of Western & Southern Financial Group (Western & Southern). For more information, visit TouchstoneInvestments.com.
About Western & Southern Financial Group
Founded in Cincinnati in 1888 as The Western and Southern Life Insurance Company, Western & Southern Financial Group, Inc. (Western & Southern), a Fortune 500 company, is now the parent company of a group of diversified financial services businesses. Its assets owned ($47.2 billion) and managed ($22.3 billion) total $69.5 billion as of Sept 30, 2017. Western & Southern is one of the strongest life insurance groups in the world. Its six life insurance subsidiaries (The Western and Southern Life Insurance Company, Western-Southern Life Assurance Company, Columbus Life Insurance Company, Integrity Life Insurance Company, The Lafayette Life Insurance Company and National Integrity Life Insurance Company) maintain very strong financial ratings and a Comdex Ranking of 96. Other member companies include Eagle Realty Group, LLC; Fort Washington Investment Advisors, Inc.¹ IFS Financial Services, Inc.; Peppertree Partners LLC¹; Touchstone Advisors, Inc.¹; Touchstone Securities, Inc.²; W&S Brokerage Services, Inc.²; and W&S Financial Group Distributors, Inc. For more information on the Western & Southern family of companies, visit www.westernsouthern.com. Western & Southern is the title sponsor of the Western & Southern Open (www.wsopen.com), a premier event in the U.S. Open Series played each August by the world's top-ranked professional male and female tennis players.
1 A registered investment advisor.
2 A registered broker-dealer and member FINRA/SIPC.
For current ratings, please visit www.westernsouthern.com/about/financial-information/financial-ratings.
About National Life
At National Life, our story is simple: For 168 years we've worked hard to deliver on our promises to millions of people with our vision of providing peace of mind in times of need. It's our cause, stemming from a deep passion to live our values to do good, be good and make good, every day. Learn more at NationalLife.com. National Life Group® is a trade name of National Life Insurance Company, founded in Montpelier, Vermont, in 1848, Life Insurance Company of the Southwest, Addison, Texas, chartered in 1955, and their affiliates. Each company of National Life Group is solely responsible for its own financial condition and contractual obligations. Life Insurance Company of the Southwest is not an authorized insurer in New York and does not conduct insurance business in New York.
