Alger Expands Retirement Plan Offerings with High-Conviction, Focused Large Cap Collective Investment Trust

NEW YORK, Feb. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Fred Alger Management, LLC ("Alger"), a $43 billion growth equity investment manager, is pleased to announce the expansion of its Collective Investment Trust (CIT) offerings with Alger Focus Equity CIT, a focused portfolio of approximately 50 high-conviction, large capitalization stocks.

The Alger Focus Equity strategy, started by Alger in 2013, has more than $3.2B in AUM. Currently, the strategy is offered in several vehicles, including a mutual fund (the Morningstar 5-star rated Alger Focus Equity Fund), separate accounts, retail SMA and an offshore vehicle. The Alger Focus Equity CIT joins a strong lineup of CITs, including the Alger Capital Appreciation Series CIT, which was launched in 2014.

"We believe it's important to offer retirement plan clients a choice when it comes to investments in their plans. With the launch of the Alger Focus Equity CIT, we're able to package a high-conviction strategy into a vehicle with an attractive pricing structure for a retirement plan," said Jim Tambone, executive vice president and chief distribution officer at Alger.

Serving as the Trustee of Alger's CITs, SEI Trust Company is a subsidiary of SEI, a leading global provider of investment processing, investment management and investment operations solutions. Alger plans on continuing to partner with SEI as it offers additional CITs across the asset class spectrum to its retirement-focused advisor clients.

"We expect Alger's Focus Equity CIT offering, coupled with SEI Trust Company's expertise, to be a powerful combination in the U.S. retirement market," said John Alshefski, senior vice president and managing director of SEI's Investment Manager Services division.

In addition to the launch of the new CIT, Alger and SEI have registered these CITs with Nasdaq Fund Network ("NFN"). Plan sponsors and advisors will now be able to access daily net asset value and performance information. The three CITs on NFN include:

• Alger Capital Appreciation Series CIT (R1): AGCASX
• Alger Capital Appreciation Series CIT (R5): SEIAAX
• Alger Focus Equity Series CIT (R1): SEIACX

"Alger has been helping plan sponsors, consultants and retirement focused advisors improve retirement outcomes for participants by providing strong growth equity investment options for more than 55 years. We continue to see increased demand for CITs and are pleased that we can offer these to advisors and record keeping platforms," said John Carbone, senior vice president and head of retirement investment solutions. "We believe listing the CITs on the Nasdaq Fund Network will provide more information and transparency for plan sponsors and will ultimately lead to increased utilization of CITs in small and mid-sized retirement plans."

"Increased data access and transparency benefit all investors," said Devin McCarthy, managing director, Nasdaq Fund Network. "Nasdaq is proud to partner with SEI and Alger to make CITs more accessible to the broader investment community across major retirement platforms."

About Alger
Founded in 1964, Alger is widely recognized as a pioneer of growth-style investment management. Headquartered in New York City with affiliate offices in Boston and London, Alger provides U.S. and non-U.S. institutional investors and financial advisors access to a suite of growth equity separate accounts, mutual funds, and privately offered investment vehicles. The firm's investment philosophy, discovering companies undergoing Positive Dynamic Change, has been in place for over 50 years. Weatherbie Capital, LLC, a Boston-based investment adviser specializing in small and mid-cap growth equity investing is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alger. For more information, please visit http://www.alger.com.

About SEI
After 50 years in business, SEI (NASDAQ:SEIC) remains a leading global provider of investment processing, investment management, and investment operations solutions designed to help corporations, financial institutions, financial advisors, and ultra-high-net-worth families create and manage wealth. As of Dec. 31, 2020, through its subsidiaries and partnerships in which the company has a significant interest, SEI manages, advises or administers approximately $1 trillion in hedge, private equity, mutual fund and pooled or separately managed assets, including approximately $369 billion in assets under management and $787 billion in client assets under administration. For more information, visit seic.com.

SEI Trust Company ("STC") is a non-depository trust company chartered under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which provides trustee, custodial, operational and administrative services to various collective investment trusts. STC was formed in June 1989, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SEI Investments Company and is regulated and examined by the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities. The Trustee shall offer interests in each Trust only to parties who are eligible plans in a collective investment trust pursuant to applicable law, including, but not limited to, the applicable provisions of the Securities Act of 1933, the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the Pennsylvania Banking Code of 1965, as well as the terms of the offering documents for each specific trust.

The Alger Collective Trust (the "Trust") is a trust for the collective investment of assets of participating tax qualified pension and profit sharing plans and related trusts, and governmental plans as more fully described in the Declaration of Trust. The Alger Capital Appreciation Series CIT and Alger Focus Equity Series CIT are managed by SEI Trust Company, the trustee, based on the investment advice of Fred Alger Management, LLC, and the investment adviser to the Trust. As a bank collective trust, the Alger Capital Appreciation Series CIT and Alger Focus Equity Series CIT are exempt from registration as an investment company.

Risk Disclosures: Investing in the stock market involves risks, including the potential loss of principal. Growth stocks may be more volatile than other stocks as their prices tend to be higher in relation to their companies' earnings and may be more sensitive to market, political, and economic developments. A significant portion of assets will be invested in technology companies, which may be significantly affected by competition, innovation, regulation, and product obsolescence, and may be more volatile than the securities of other companies. Investments in the Consumer Discretionary Sector may be affected by domestic and international economies, consumer's disposable income, consumer preferences and social trends. Foreign securities involve special risks including currency fluctuations, inefficient trading, political and economic instability, and increased volatility. Assets may be focused in a small number of holdings, making them susceptible to risks associated with a single economic, political or regulatory event than a more diversified portfolio. Active trading may increase transaction costs, brokerage commissions, and taxes, which can lower the return on investment.

© 2020 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete, or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Morningstar calculates a Morningstar Rating™ based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a fund's monthly performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The Morningstar Rating may differ among share classes of a mutual fund as a result of different sales loads and/or expense structures. It may be based in part, on the performance of a predecessor fund. For each fund with at least a three year history, Morningstar calculates a Morningstar™ Rating based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a fund's monthly performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of funds in each category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. (Each share class is counted as a fraction of one fund within this scale and rated separately, which may cause slight variations in the distribution percentages.) The Overall Morningstar Rating for a fund is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five- and ten-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating Metrics. Alger Focus Equity Fund Class Z was rated 4, 5, and 4 stars for the 3-, 5-, and 10-year periods among 1197, 1070, and 789 Large Growth funds as of 12/31/20.

Rankings and ratings may be based in part on the performance of a predecessor fund or share class and are calculated by Morningstar using a performance calculation methodology that differs from that used by Fred Alger Management, LLC's. Differences in the methodologies may lead to variances in calculating total performance returns, in some cases this variance may be significant, thereby potentially affecting the rating/ranking of the Fund(s). When an expense waiver is in effect, it may have a material effect on the total return or yield, and therefore the rating/ranking for the period.

Before investing, carefully consider the Fund's investment objective, risks, charges, and expenses. For a prospectus and summary prospectus containing this and other information or for the Fund's most recent month-end performance data, visit http://www.alger.com, call (800) 992-3863 or consult your financial advisor. Read the prospectus and summary prospectus carefully before investing.

Distributor: Fred Alger & Company, LLC. Member NYSE Euronext, SIPC. NOT FDIC INSURED. NOT BANK GUARANTEED. MAY LOSE VALUE.

Media Contact

Scott Anderson, Alger, 212-806-2972, sanderson@alger.com

Sheila Kulik, Prosek, 203-745-2523, skulik@prosek.com

SOURCE Alger