Highlights

  • Historic partnership provides investors with active, tax-aware, climate-focused strategies.
  • Strategies offer retail investors rare access to institutional quality-strategies.
  • Gitterman Wealth Management builds asset allocation models and selects underlying managers; Natixis provides tax overlay management.
BOSTON, June 15, 2020 – Gitterman Wealth Management (Gitterman) today launched the Sustainability Metrics Applied to Risk Tolerance®1 (SMART) Unified Managed Account (UMA) Models in an effort to provide clients access to boutique and emerging managers that implement climate science to security selection and portfolio construction in a UMA structure.

The SMART UMA Models incorporate products that have robust financial metrics, sophisticated ESG capabilities and rigorous due diligence processes, and are available to outside Registered Investment Advisors (RIA) as well as retail investors. According to the World Economic Forum2, the highest impact and highest probability global risks are primarily climate-related or will be exacerbated by climate change. As such, investment models with a climate focus are increasingly important.

The SMART UMA models feature managers who are strategically exploring climate scenarios and their related impacts, alongside disclosing risks and opportunities. Gitterman selected Natixis as its tax overlay manager in order to achieve after-tax returns that may benefit from significant outperformance. The additional managers in Gitterman’s SMART UMA Models are:
  • Alliance Bernstein
  • Calvert
  • Federated / Hermes
  • Green Alpha Advisors
  • KBI Global Investors
  • Martin Currie
  • Promethos Capital
  • Stance Capital
  • Water Asset Management
  • Wellington Management
The SMART UMA Models are exclusively designed as fully diversified core products available in taxable and qualified formats. Gitterman selected Natixis as its tax overlay manager in order to achieve after-tax returns that may benefit from significant outperformance.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Natixis given their excellent reputation for developing multi-manager solutions and maximizing portfolios’ after-tax investment returns,” said Jeff Gitterman, Co-founding Partner at Gitterman Wealth Management. “Building on our existing success with ESG-oriented mutual fund models, we are confident Natixis will enhance the SMART UMA Models by implementing more tax-aware strategies for our climate-focused investors.”

“Since we know that taxes historically erode 1-2% of a client’s investment returns, we believe our tax loss harvesting and overlay management capabilities can mitigate a significant amount of that impact,” said Curt Overway, President and Portfolio Manager at Natixis’ subdivision Managed Portfolio Advisors (MPA). “The introduction of Smart UMAs, implemented in a single integrated portfolio, gives retail investors unique access to world-class institutional strategies through Gitterman’s extensive network of boutique and emerging managers.”

About Natixis Investment Managers
Natixis Investment Managers serves financial professionals with more insightful ways to construct portfolios. Powered by the expertise of more than 20 specialized investment managers globally, we apply Active Thinking® to deliver proactive solutions that help clients pursue better outcomes in all markets. Natixis Investment Managers ranks among the world’s largest asset management firms3 with $908.9 billion / €828.4 billion assets under management4.

Headquartered in Paris and Boston, Natixis Investment Managers is a subsidiary of Natixis. Listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, Natixis is a subsidiary of BPCE, the second-largest banking group in France. Natixis Investment Managers’ affiliated investment management firms include AEW; Alliance Entreprendre; AlphaSimplex Group; DNCA Investments;5 Dorval Asset Management; Flexstone Partners; Gateway Investment Advisers; H2O Asset Management; Harris Associates; Investors Mutual Limited; Loomis, Sayles & Company; Mirova; MV Credit; Naxicap Partners; Ossiam; Ostrum Asset Management; Seeyond; Seventure Partners; Thematics Asset Management; Vauban Infrastructure Partners; Vaughan Nelson Investment Management; Vega Investment Managers;6 and WCM Investment Management. Additionally, investment solutions are offered through Natixis Investment Managers Solutions, and Natixis Advisors offers other investment services through its AIA and MPA division. Not all offerings available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit Natixis Investment Managers’ website at im.natixis.com | LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/natixis-investment-managers.

Natixis Investment Managers’ distribution and service groups include Natixis Distribution, L.P., a limited purpose broker-dealer and the distributor of various U.S. registered investment companies for which advisory services are provided by affiliated firms of Natixis Investment Managers, Natixis Investment Managers S.A. (Luxembourg), Natixis Investment Managers International (France), and their affiliated distribution and service entities in Europe and Asia.

This material is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. Diversification does not guarantee a profit or protect against a loss.

Gitterman Wealth Management
Gitterman Wealth Management is a leader in the Sustainable, Impact, and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Investing space, offering outsourced research, education, and investing solutions for financial professionals. Founded by Jeffrey L. Gitterman and Elias S. Rauch, we are an independent SEC registered investment advisory firm that also provides retirement and wealth management services to the higher education marketplace and high-net-worth individuals.
1 Gitterman Wealth Management’s proprietary, ESG and sustainability investment solutions that comprise third-party products (mutual funds, ETFs and SMAs). Gitterman Wealth Management and Natixis Investment Managers are separate and distinct federally regulated entities.

2 World Economic Forum Global Risks Perception Survey 2019–2020.

3 Cerulli Quantitative Update: Global Markets 2019 ranked Natixis Investment Managers as the 17th largest asset manager in the world based on assets under management as of December 31, 2018.

4 Assets under management (“AUM”) as of March 31, 2020. AUM, as reported, may include notional assets, assets serviced, gross assets, assets of minority-owned affiliated entities and other types of non-regulatory AUM managed or serviced by firms affiliated with Natixis Investment Managers.

5 A brand of DNCA Finance.

6 A wholly-owned subsidiary of Natixis Wealth Management.

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