State Street Global Advisors, the asset management business of State Street Corporation, has launched its State Street Target Retirement IndexPlus Strategy, which will provide access to both public and private market exposures in a diversified strategy for defined contribution plans and their participants.

The strategy expands upon traditional target-date approaches by giving plan participants exposure to public markets through index strategies managed by State Street and exposure to a diversified portfolio of private markets investments via a pooled investment vehicle managed by Apollo Global Management. The strategy will be managed by State Street Global Advisors’ Investment Solutions Group, which oversees more than $ 200 billion in global target-date assets. Each target retirement fund will target an allocation of 90 % to public market exposures and 10 % to private market exposures.

Hearsay Systems Offers Communications Bundle For Smaller RIAs

Hearsay Systems, a San Francisco-based platform serving the financial services industry with digital client communication services, has announced a new offering for RIAs, specifically to meet the needs of firms with fewer than 50 employees.

Hearsay provides compliant digital communications solutions to financial professionals, and the company has fine-tuned its offering for the needs of smaller RIAs so they can take more advantage of modern communications channels to attract clients.

The bundle facilitates social media publishing and messaging for LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, including campaigns and personalization. It helps firms develop personal websites that appear high in searches. And it suggests and curates content that advisors can personalize. And it enables texting, voice, desktop and mobile options with automation( users can set working hours, pre-scheduled texts and more).

Tool Streamlines Advisor, Client Conversations

eMoney Advisor has beefed up its“ Needs Analysis” feature. This planning tool is designed to foster single-goal conversations between financial advisors and their clients and prospects.

The tool simplifies the planning process so advisors can start conversations on essential planning topics with mass market and mass affluent prospects and clients, topics that include retirement, education, and spending goals.“ These conversations also serve as an entry point for generating interest in more comprehensive planning services as clients’ needs evolve,” the Radnor, Pa.-based eMoney said.

Its workflow guides the advisor from data entry to a final deliverable.

The tool has many features. For instance, it lets advisors gain insights about a client without interrupting the conversations with them— since the outputs update as data is entered in real time. The tool will also create a strategy specifically tailored to the client’ s goals using common scenarios like spending more or saving less.

Ridgeline Introduces New AI Agent Framework

Ridgeline, a cloud platform for the investment management industry, has launched its new AI agent framework, which includes dedicated agents for client management and trade compliance. The Incline Village, Nev.-based firm says these agents act like“ digital co-workers.” It has developed several more agents planned for this year.

The client management agent scans client correspondence, including emails, meeting notes, and call reports. It then generates actionable requests and automatically prepares next steps. The compliance agent identifies pre-trade compliance violations, analyzes historical patterns, and escalates high-risk cases for review.

Not only do the agents require monitoring from a central dashboard, but human intervention is necessary at important points to maintain human control.

New Tool Turns Anonymous Visitors Into Active Leads

AdvizorPro has rolled out a new tool for advisors that allows them to turn anonymous website visitors into actionable sales leads, the Atlanta-based firm announced.

TrafficIQ captures firmographic and geographic signals, such as domains, company names, industries and locations, from anonymous web visitors and matches them to AdvizorPro’ s proprietary financial advisor database.

Bringing this information together, TrafficIQ can identify which firm visited a site as well as the team or location the visitor came from. It gives advisors the opportunity to turn passive traffic into contacts ready for outreach.

TrafficIQ will also integrate with many CRM systems so firms can automate their lead assignments and personalize their email follow-ups and generate high-priority call tasks based on real-time behavior.

First Trust Launches Bitcoin Strategy ETFs

Asset manager First Trust Advisors L. P. has launched two new bitcoin strategy ETFs. The first, the FT Vest Bitcoin Strategy Floor15 ETF— April( BFAP), seeks to replicate the performance of bitcoin with an upside cap and a downside cap loss of 15 %. The fund uses Treasurys, cash and options to that end. The FT Vest Bitcoin Strategy & Target Income ETF( DFII) is an actively managed ETF that seeks to deliver partial participation in the returns of bitcoin while providing a high level of income.

14 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | MAY 2025 WWW. FA-MAG. COM