Towers Watson trumpets Smart Beta solutions
Towers Watson has trumpeted its so-called Smart Beta solutions, claiming the company's institutional investment clients have allocated over $15 billion to the products in the past five years.
Towers Watson global head of investment research Craig Baker said that over the past half decade the company had partnered with many different asset managers to develop 20 Smart Beta solutions in areas where there were good investment ideas, but no desirable investment products on a net-of-fees basis.
"We are entirely focused on providing our clients the best net-of-fees investment propositions, regardless of whether they are large or small or investing actively or passively," he claimed.
Baker said the Smart Beta solutions had wide applications for most of Towers Watson's clients, which was why the company had worked with many different asset managers.
"Smart Beta is about trying to identify good investment ideas that can be structured better, whether that is improving existing beta opportunities or creating exposures or themes that are implementable in a low cost, systematic way," he said.
"It is not a substitute for good active management, but it allows resources to be focused on active management in areas where one can't systematise exposures."
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