Mutual fund platform Hartford Funds has signed an agreement to acquire investment management firm Lattice Strategies in a bid to break into the ETF space, building out its actively managed mutual fund business.
Ted Lucas, managing partner at Lattice Strategies, said: “Our firms bring complementary strengths that will provide advisors and their clients with the strategies they need to address the investment challenges they are attempting to solve.”
Lattice Strategies offers a range of multi-asset solutions, proprietary indexes and smart beta ETFs. The firm’s ETF family was launched in 2015, and was among the top 5 fastest-growing new ETF issuers for the year according to ETFGI.com. It has $215 million in assets under management as of March 31, 2016.
Lattice Strategies existing ETFs are the Lattice Developed Markets (ex-US) Strategy ETF (RODM), Lattice US Equity Strategy ETF (ROUS), Lattice Global Small Cap Strategy ETF (ROGS), and the Lattice Emerging Markets Strategy ETF (ROAM).
Hartford Funds offers more than 45 mutual funds, primarily sub-advised by Wellington Management and has mutual fund assets under management of $73.6 billion as of March 31, 2016 (excluding assets used in certain annuity products.) The acquisition is expected to complete in the third quarter of this year and will see Hartford maintain Lattice Strategies San Francisco office and team of more than 20.
Ted Lucas, managing partner and chairman of the investment committee for Lattice Strategies, added: “We look forward to joining the Hartford Funds team. Our firms bring complementary strengths that will provide advisors and their clients with the strategies they need to address the investment challenges they are attempting to solve.”
Jim Davey, president of Hartford Funds, said in a statement: “We are excited to acquire Lattice Strategies’ distinctive ETF offering and investment capabilities, which we foresee being increasingly demanded by financial professionals and their clients. The strategic beta space is a natural extension of Hartford Funds’ actively managed platform, enabling us to enter a fast-growing category that will serve as a foundation for growth in the future.”