Slocum CIO Quits to Spin Out Derivatives Fund

Jon Havice DGV Jon Havice, ex-CIO of SlocumJeffrey Slocum & Associates—investment consultant on $123 billion—has lost its CIO Jon Havice, according to an insider and digital records.

Havice quit this month to spin out an equities derivatives strategy that Slocum had been incubating, his LinkedIn profile confirms. The new firm DGV Solutions was “founded by the key principals of Slocum,” its website said, but lists no names.

Repeated calls to Slocum’s director of administration for confirmation were not returned. Havice and Slocum Principal Texas Hemmaplardh likewise did not respond to CIO’s messages.

The Minneapolis-based advisor recently wiped all staff listings and biographies from its website.

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DGV Solutions is the second asset manager to spin out of Slocum. In 1996, President Jeff Slocum co-founded high-net-worth investor Northside Capital Management, where he serves as a managing member.

Havice and DGV’s COO Lance Breiland began raising money while Havice continued to work as Slocum’s CIO, regulatory filings show.

DGV’s flagship product—the “Enhanced US Equity Fund”—took in $122 million on May 4, 2015, as documented with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Slocum’s website now discloses its relationship with DGV as an “affiliate” owned by in part by Slocum principals.

This disclosure appeared well after the initial fundraising. An archived version of the website from September 2015 stated, “We are not affiliated with and do not maintain any financial arrangements with investment managers… We operate under the quaint principle that our clients should never have to wonder whose side we are on.”

Slocum had 130 institutional clients as of June 2015, advising on $123 billion in assets.

UBS Group has launched a new outsourced-CIO (OCIO) service, targeting clients with $10 million to $250 million in assets, the firm announced Thursday.

The Swiss bank’s asset management division will partner with its wealth management Americas unit to offer discretionary services as “an extension of the OCIO service that has been offered until now,” Charlie Service, managing director of investment solutions at UBS Asset Management, told CIO.

UBS has been offering OCIO services since 2007, and counts Delta Air Lines as a major client. The new program will “combine UBS’ consulting experience and investment heritage,” the firm continued. The clients will be able to retain portfolio oversight while delegating investment decisions to UBS.

“We have complemented the institutional offering of a global asset management organization with the accessibility of a local financial advisor who understands each particular client’s needs,” said Frank van Etten, head of client solutions for UBS Asset Management.

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The new OCIO platform will take advantage of UBS’ 97 institutional consultants across the US to engage with prospective clients and handle day-to-day operations, said Peter Prunty, head of the consulting division.

Service added that the new initiative is an open-architecture third-party platform.

UBS Asset Management has been offering OCIO services since 2007, and counts Delta Air Lines as one of its major clients. The firm had $12.2 billion in discretionary assets under management and five clients as of January 2016.

The majority of UBS’ discretionary assets ($11.3 billion) were from corporate pension clients, according to CIO’s OCIO Vendor Ratings. It managed all OCIO assets in separate accounts.

OCIO clients said they chose UBS because of its reputation and track record (75%), management experience (50%), and client service (25%).