Defined Contribution Plan Advisors Get Investment Expertise and Operational Efficiency as Wilmington Trust and Neuberger Berman Partner on Collective Investment Trusts

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Dec 01, 2020, 08:15 ET

NEW YORK, Dec. 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Wilmington Trust, a leader in institutional trust services, and Neuberger Berman, a private, independent, employee-owned investment manager, today announced their collaboration to distribute CITs for defined contribution clients via specialty retirement advisor channels.

"Wilmington Trust is committed to working with prominent asset managers such as Neuberger Berman to efficiently deliver CIT solutions to the defined contribution market," said Rob Barnett, Group Vice President and Head of Retirement Distribution, Wilmington Trust. "Despite the difficulties of working through a global pandemic, we are proud to have established a new strategic alliance to help advisors, consultants, plan sponsors and participants make better informed decisions about their retirement plan portfolios and meet their long-term goals."

"Accessing the Wilmington Trust platform enables us to deepen our connections with specialty retirement advisors, empowering them to drive greater awareness of CITs and why they should be considered for appropriate retirement plans," said Michelle Rappa, Managing Director and Client Advisor, Neuberger Berman. "We're excited to be a part of an ecosystem that will enable us to broaden our reach in this market and offer expanded access to Neuberger Berman's strategies."

Through this alliance, plan advisors may also benefit from greater operational efficiencies so they can more effectively work across their entire book of business. With no minimum investment requirements, the Wilmington Trust platform enables advisors to access various Neuberger Berman strategies for retirement plans of any size. Neuberger Berman has a wide breath of investment solutions, many of which are now more accessible via a CIT structure to address the unique needs of plan clients.

CITs are often a lower-cost fee option for plan clients and have operational and processing conveniences similar to those of a mutual fund, as well as the transparency required by plan sponsors. They may be traded through the National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC).

Wilmington Trust is a leader in the CIT market with more than $70 billion in assets under administration across funds managed by more than 45 sub-advisors and available on more than 47 trading platforms as of September 30, 2020. Wilmington Trust collaborates with more than two dozen industry partners, including Neuberger Berman, to offer access to CITs.

About Neuberger Berman
Neuberger Berman, founded in 1939, is a private, independent, employee-owned investment manager. The firm manages a range of strategies—including equity, fixed income, quantitative and multi-asset class, private equity, real estate and hedge funds—on behalf of institutions, advisors and individual investors globally. With offices in 24 countries, Neuberger Berman's diverse team has over 2,300 professionals. For six consecutive years, the company has been named first or second in Pensions & Investments Best Places to Work in Money Management survey (among those with 1,000 employees or more). In 2020, the PRI named Neuberger Berman a Leader, a designation awarded to fewer than 1% of investment firms for excellence in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices. The PRI also awarded Neuberger Berman an A+ in every eligible category for our approach to ESG integration across asset classes. The firm manages $374 billion in client assets as of September 30, 2020. For more information, please visit our website at www.nb.com.

About Wilmington Trust
Wilmington Trust, N.A. provides corporate and institution services including institutional trustee, retirement plan, agency, asset management, and administrative services for clients worldwide who use capital markets financing structures. Wilmington Trust provides directed trustee, custody, and fiduciary services for retirement plans, companies, foundations, organizations, and financial institutions.

Wilmington Trust also provides Wealth Advisory services with a wide array of personal trust, financial planning, fiduciary, asset management, and family office solutions designed to help high-net-worth individuals and families grow, preserve and transfer wealth.

Wilmington Trust maintains offices throughout the United States and internationally in London, Paris, Dublin, and Frankfurt. For more information, visit www.WilmingtonTrust.com.

Media Contacts:
Wilmington Trust
Maya Dillon
(212) 415-0557
[email protected]

Neuberger Berman
Alex Samuelson
(212) 476-5392
[email protected]

Disclosure: Collective investment trusts (CITs) are bank sponsored collective investment funds; they are not mutual funds. The CITs and units therein are exempt from registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and the Investment Company Act of 1940. Investments in CITs are not deposits or obligations of or guaranteed by the sponsoring trust company, and are not insured by the FDIC, the Federal Reserve, or any other governmental agency. The CITs are commingled investment vehicles, and as such, the values of the underlying investments will rise and fall according to market activity; it is possible to lose money by investing in CITs. Participation in CITs is limited primarily to qualified defined contribution plans, defined benefit plans and certain state or local government plans. Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of any pooled investment fund carefully before investing. Investing entails risks, including possible loss of principal.

All Neuberger Berman information is as of September 30, 2020 unless otherwise indicated and is subject to change without notice. Firm data, including employee and assets under management figures, reflects collective data for the various affiliated investment advisers that are subsidiaries of Neuberger Berman Group LLC. Firm history/timeline includes the history of all firm subsidiaries, including predecessor entities and acquisitions. "Neuberger Berman Trust Company" is a trade name used by Neuberger Berman Trust Company N.A. and Neuberger Berman Trust Company of Delaware N.A.

PRI grades are based on information reported directly by PRI signatories, of which investment managers totaled 1,924 for 2020, 1,119 for 2019, 1,120 for 2018 and 935 for 2017. All signatories are eligible to participate and must complete a questionnaire to be included. The underlying information submitted by signatories is not audited by the PRI or any other party acting on its behalf. Signatories report on their responsible investment activities by responding to asset-specific modules in the Reporting Framework. Each module houses a variety of indicators that address specific topics of responsible investment. Signatories' answers are then assessed, and results are compiled into an Assessment Report. The Assessment Report includes indicator scores, summarizing the individual scores achieved and comparing them to the median; section scores, grouping similar indicator scores together into categories (e.g. policy, assurance, governance) and comparing them to the median; module scores, aggregating all the indicator scores within a module to assign one of six performance bands (from E to A+). Awards and ratings referenced do not reflect the experiences of any Neuberger Berman client and readers should not view such information as representative of any client's experience or assume that they will have a similar investment experience as any previous or existing client. Awards and ratings are not indicative of the past or future performance of any Neuberger Berman product or service. Moreover, the underlying information has not been audited by the PRI or any other party acting on its behalf. While every effort has been made to produce a fair representation of performance, no representations or warranties are made as to the accuracy of the information presented, and no responsibility or liability can be accepted for damage caused by use of or reliance on the information contained within this report. Information about PRI grades is sourced entirely from PRI and Neuberger Berman makes no representations, warranties or opinions based on that information.

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