Placemark Investments Inc.'s president, Richard Dion, wants his company to increase distribution through small advisers during the coming months.
The Boston unified managed account provider announced Mr. Dion's promotion June 23. Scott Egner, the national sales manager, who works with clients' financial advisers to sell them on Placemark's programs, now reports directly to Mr. Dion, instead of chief executive Lee Chertavian.
Mr. Dion is Placemark's first president since 2003, when Randy Bullard, one of its co-founders, became an executive vice president. During his tenure as its president, Mr. Bullard was not involved with adviser sales.
The company will continue to distribute through banks and large broker-dealers.
Mr. Dion spent 15 years in sales and product development at Fidelity Investments before leaving in late 1999 to become the CEO of Oberon Financial Technology Inc., a unit of Sunnyvale Inc. He was hired by Placemark as its national sales manager in 2002.
Mr. Chertavian said when Mr. Dion joined the company, he gained a reputation for going into the field and talking to financial services companies' advisers and clients. In one of his first projects, Mr. Dion persuaded McDonald Investments Inc., now a Cleveland unit of UBS AG, to change its pricing strategy, and within a year asset inflows doubled for McDonald. Mr. Dion was promoted to chief operating officer in 2003.
Jeff Strange, a senior analyst at the Boston research firm Cerulli Associates, said Placemark's sales business will change as it broadens its client base beyond large broker-dealers to include small registered investment advisers.
But Mr. Dion faces challenges. Other large financial services firms are buying and launching their own unified managed account platforms. In February, Citi Global Wealth Management bought Legg Mason Private Portfolio Group's separately managed account platforms. Previously, Placemark had provided such services to Citigroup Inc.'s retail brokerage arm, Smith Barney. "Certainly nobody's happy about losing a flagship sponsor," he said. "It bodes well" for Placemark "that Smith Barney felt it was important enough to buy a firm."
Placemark had $8 billion of assets under management as of June 30. Last year its assets grew 50%, to $7 billion at yearend.
Right now it has around 10 people working with advisers and their clients and visiting them at their offices in the United States and Canada, Mr. Dion said. "Clearly, in order to get to the smaller, more diverse firms, we need more of a presence on the Street."
He said he does not know if Placemark will build out the sales force he will manage by adding employees or seeking business partners. But Mr. Bullard said Placemark plans to keep its adviser sales force at its current level.
Sales remain strong, he said. "Our pipeline is loaded, and our ability to bring on new business is one of our primary constraints that we're having worry about."
Placemark's client relationships are "solid and growing," Mr. Bullard said. It has around 16 institutional clients at the moment. Deals with five others are in implementation, and it expects to add two more a quarter during the next year and a half, he said.
He said Placemark will grow by doing more business with advisers that serve wealthy clients, such as multifamily offices. It also wants to expand in Canada.
