State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), the asset management arm of State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT), today announced that it has made an equity investment in Ethic Inc. (Ethic), a technology-driven asset management platform that powers personalized, values-aligned, and tax-smart investing for financial intermediaries.
SSGA and Ethic also announced a strategic partnership to deliver customized investment solutions at scale to SSGA’s institutional and financial intermediary clients. Key features of the partnership include:
- Innovative investment solutions – the creation and management of customized separately managed accounts (SMAs), model portfolios, and unified managed accounts (UMAs) powered by SSGA and Ethic.
- Technology-driven experience – an engaging advisor and client experience, spanning unique proposal generation, portfolio transition plans, and reporting.
- Customization with scale – a scalable platform that empowers intermediaries to create highly customized portfolios that seek to align with clients' individual preferences, goals, and values.
“This new partnership underscores our broader commitment to meeting the growing demand for customized portfolios,” said Yie-Hsin Hung, chief executive officer of State Street Global Advisors. “Ethic has seen incredible growth in a short period thanks to industry-leading technology and deep expertise that help advisors deliver portfolios that reflect what matters most to clients. Ethic’s platform has become a standard-bearer for customization, and we’re excited to help them reach new audiences.”
The shift toward personalization is reshaping the financial services industry, with investors increasingly expecting portfolios tailored to their individual values, risk tolerance, and tax situation. A recent SSGA study underscores this trend, revealing that nearly two-thirds of U.S. investors want more personalized advice, while 85% of advisors believe tax personalization enhances a portfolio’s value proposition. To meet this growing need, SSGA has partnered with Ethic to provide a seamless, technology-driven solution, enabling financial intermediaries to construct personalized portfolios at scale.
“We see our role as empowering intermediaries to help their clients invest in the future that they want to see,” said Doug Scott, chief executive officer and co-founder at Ethic. “With this new funding round and strategic partnership, we’re excited to be accelerating the adoption of personalized, values-aligned, and tax-smart investing.”
Today’s announcement reflects SSGA leading Ethic’s $64 million Series D funding round and further builds on its commitment to creating original solutions and better outcomes for its clients and the world's investors, including through its recently launched investor campaign, “Getting There Starts Here.”
And here's what CEO Doug Scott said about the deal in a more personal statement:
A Note on Our Exciting Update
We’re very excited to announce today our $64 million Series D funding round, led by a new strategic partner, State Street, who now joins our group of existing backers from prior funding rounds including Oak HC/FT, Nyca Partners, UBS, Jordan Park, and Fidelity.
Since the early days, we’ve partnered with financial intermediaries to help their clients more closely align their investments with what matters to them. We achieve this by powering personalized, values-aligned, and tax-smart investing. This approach is designed to both facilitate a stronger connection between intermediaries and their clients, and support greater intentionality in investing. At scale, we believe this combination is what drives positive outcomes for financial intermediaries, their clients, and the world.
In the last 4 years, with the support of our partners, we’ve grown our assets by more than 10X, now working with over 250 advisory and institutional firms to manage in excess of $6 billion. Over this period, we’re very proud to have achieved major technology advances across our investment capabilities, our client experience, and our advisor experience.
In the quarters and years ahead, we have a lot to be excited about. Our new partnership with State Street, one of the world’s largest financial services companies, offers us the opportunity for even greater scale, reach and impact. The new funding round helps us further enhance our investment capabilities and technology to continue to deeply serve the needs of our advisor and institutional partners. We’re also actively growing our world-class team, with many new roles currently open.
Today is another exciting milestone for the Ethic team. We’re looking forward to continuing to grow together with forward-thinking financial intermediaries and helping investors build towards the future that they want to see.
Onwards,
Doug
