Collective investment trusts are now a $100 billion business for SEI . . . up 20.5% from last year's level. And the best is yet to come.
The increase follows a surge in fund launches by the company. Its SEI Trust Company debuted 39 funds across 11 global investment managers in 2020, adding more than $17.3 billion in CIT assets.
SEI, which trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker SEIC, said in a press release that it attributed the increase to the growing popularity of CITs among plan sponsors.
"Many of our clients are adding target-date fund CITs to their investment portfolios to meet the customization requirements of plan sponsors and consultants," John Alshefski, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of SEI's Investment Manager Services division, said in the press release.
"CITs also offer investment managers and plan sponsor investors access to a wide variety of asset classes and multiple fee classes based on their size and relationship."
For example, in December, Nuveen, the global investment manager of TIAA, added the Nuveen TIAA Lifecycle Index CIT series to its target date fund solution.
With that move, Nuveen's CIT series now provides a passive target-date strategy in both a mutual fund (TIAA-CREF Lifecycle Index Funds) and a CIT solution.
SEI Trust Company is the trustee for Nuveen's CIT series, providing both fiduciary and investment management oversight.
