Seeds Expands Asset Class Offering, Adds ESG Fixed Income Strategies With Large Managers, Including Nuveen

NEW YORK, Dec. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Seeds Investor ("Seeds") has launched taxable fixed income strategies to complement the tax-free bond and customized equities strategies that are available to financial advisors on its platform. The Seeds platform enables advisors to deliver complete portfolios that align clients' financial goals and personal values.

The new Seeds fixed income strategies include institutional investment managers that are industry leaders in integrating ESG in fixed income funds, such as Nuveen, as well as funds managed by BlackRock. Earlier this year, Seeds partnered with AllianceBernstein to offer tax-free municipal bond exposure with impact.

"We're building different exposures in partnership with select industry leaders like Nuveen so that advisors can truly deliver values alignment across all asset classes," said Seeds founder and CEO Zachary Conway. "We're empowering advisors to confidently deliver values-based investment portfolios to their clients. Helping advisors to align clients' personal values and financial goals is our 'north star' as we continue to build."

Among the funds in the strategy, the TIAA-CREF Core Impact Bond Fund (TSBIX) managed by Nuveen consists of taxable bonds that reflect Seeds' ESG integration and overall investment philosophy. The fund prioritizes bonds that make direct and measurable impact across multiple sustainable and socioeconomic themes without compromising return potential. It also assesses ESG quality within each sector and industry to identify best-in-class issuers across key bond market segments to build a diversified portfolio and manage risk.[1] Seeds will integrate these metrics to complement its existing impact reporting in its dashboard experience for advisors and their clients.

"There is tremendous synergy between Seeds' industry-leading work to enable deeper relationships between advisors and their clients and the framework through which we assess every holding of the TIAA-CREF Core Impact Bond Fund," said Steve Liberatore, lead portfolio manager and head of fixed income ESG/impact investing, Nuveen."By delivering exposure to bonds that fund affordable housing, community development, renewable energy and natural resource conservation initiatives, Seeds further diversifies its portfolio construction to the benefit of advisors and its clients."

Today, advisors use the Seeds platform to quickly assess a client's personal values and financial goals and then present a complete portfolio proposal. 

"Advisors need an all-in-one solution to understand clients more deeply and deliver a completely aligned portfolio," said Seeds COO and Head of Product Kristen O'Grady. "Presenting strategies that include select managers allows us to differentiate from model marketplaces in the industry, which typically present long, unedited lists of options that too often contain elements of 'greenwashing.'"

O'Grady previously spent over 10 years developing investment products for large asset managers and banks.

In its equities investment process, Seeds curates and manages custom portfolios for advisors and their clients through a process they call "inverse indexing." Instead of the typical top-down "direct indexing" approach of benchmark screening, Seeds automatically constructs bottom-up portfolios by using both a data-driven and fundamental review process.  

Seeds is one of very few values-alignment and ESG investment platforms that offer multi-asset solutions and is not just focused on equities.  This differentiator makes the overall solution more complete for advisors and their clients to both invest and then see the impact of their full portfolio.

Seeds is available as a software platform and sub-advisory investment solution to large, independent advisory platforms across the U.S.

Global ESG assets are on track to exceed $53 trillion by 2025, representing more than a third of the $140.5 trillion in projected total assets under management, according to Bloomberg.

About Seeds Investor
Seeds is enabling the evolution toward truly intentional, purposeful and personalized investing. Financial advisors deepen and grow their client relationships by using the Seeds platform to auto-deliver multi-asset class, values-aligned investing portfolios. Built by financial advisors for financial advisors, the easy-to-use Seeds platform allows advisors to ignite rich, iterative and long-lasting relationships with their clients by helping them align their personal values with their financial goals. Learn more at SeedsInvestor.com.

Seeds Investor LLC ("Seeds") is a Registered Investment Advisor located in the State of New York.

¹ TIAA-CREF Core Impact Bond Fund 2021 Impact Report 

SOURCE Seeds Investor