Product & Service Launches

Illinois Treasurer Announces Lower Fees for Able UP Accounts

Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs announced lower fees, a new mobile app, updated investment options and improved online tools for Able UP accounts, the disability savings program formerly known as Illinois ABLE.

The improved Able UP program also has updated investment options, including six options ranging from aggressive to conservative levels of risk, and a seventh FDIC-insured savings option.

Its new account portal includes online chat, phone support in multiple languages and easier account management. Account owners and authorized legal representatives can set up direct deposit for Social Security Administration benefits and use free bill pay to send checks to third parties.

Administered by the Illinois State Treasurer’s Office, people nationwide can open an Able UP account; residency in Illinois is not required.

Transamerica, Congruent Solutions Collaborate on Payroll Administration

Transamerica and Congruent Solutions, a retirement plan technology, products and services provider, are collaborating on a cloud-based platform for retirement plan payroll administration.

Transamerica’s planned implementation of Congruent’s Core Payroll platform is intended to help plan sponsors spend less time on administrative tasks. The tool should also benefit participants by enabling prompt investment of retirement contributions.

Transamerica stated that it is implementing the Congruent platform to streamline payroll file management, strengthen data validation capabilities and establish a foundation that can evolve as regulatory, customer and business needs change.

SEI, Carlyle Launch SEI Carlyle Private Markets Fund

SEI Investments Co., a global provider of investment management products and solutions, financial technology and operational services, and The Carlyle Group Inc., a global investment firm, this month debuted the SEI Carlyle Private Markets Fund, a closed-end interval fund that brings institutional private markets capabilities to retirement and wealth investors in an unlisted closed-end fund using a single-ticker structure.

The illiquid fund provides access to a broad mix of private markets strategies, including private equity, secondaries, private credit, real assets and collateralized loan obligations. The fund intends to provide liquidity to investors through quarterly offers to repurchase a limited amount of its shares; expected to be 5% of shares outstanding per quarter, according to the fund prospectus. The fund has a management fee of 0.75%.

Carlyle manages, sponsors, or advises the underlying Carlyle private markets products, while SEI serves as the fund’s investment adviser, overseeing portfolio construction, asset allocation, liquidity management and ongoing portfolio management.

As of September 30, SEI managed, advised or administered approximately $2 trillion in assets and Carlyle had $479 billion of assets under management.

Vanguard Launches Vanguard Emerging Markets Bond Active ETF

Vanguard launched the Vanguard Emerging Markets Bond Active Exchange-Traded Fund, an actively managed fixed income ETF designed to provide clients with broad exposure across emerging markets bonds while offering active management.

The ETF is managed by Vanguard Fixed Income Group and invests across emerging markets’ hard currency sovereign bonds, quasi-sovereign bonds, corporate bonds and EM local currency bonds. It has an expense ratio of 0.35%.

Vanguard Fixed Income Group had more than $2.9 trillion in global assets under management as of September 30.