Manager Access

Open Architecture for Over 25 Years

The use of multiple third-party investment managers for clients is known as "open architecture," and Atlantic Trust was an early proponent of this investment strategy. This stems from our firm's founding as a wealth counseling firm—not as a money management firm—and the "quarterback" advisory role we play for most of our clients. Atlantic Trust has dedicated significant resources to our Multi-Manager Investment Program (MMIP), which identifies, evaluates and monitors managers in every major asset class and investment style. Our MMIP has a long record of adding risk-adjusted value to our clients' assets.

Multi-Manager Investment Program

Our Multi-Manager Investment Program (MMIP) acts as a "manager of managers" in traditional and alternative asset classes including:

We take full responsibility for searching, screening, selecting and monitoring third-party investment managers. Through in-depth fundamental and quantitative analyses, we select managers most likely to sustain strong, long-term performance on a risk-adjusted, after-tax and after-fee basis. Managers do not compensate us to be included in our program. The goal of our manager selection process is to assemble the optimal combination of strategies and managers to achieve the investment objectives of your portfolio.

The approval and termination of managers on the platform is managed by the Multi-Manager Investment Committee (MMIC). The MMIC is made up of the MMIP Team, which performs due diligence and sources potential managers, as well as additional members representing broad expertise and experience across our firm. Atlantic Trust has proven its commitment to our open architecture program, doubling our MMIP Team over the past two years.

Why Atlantic Trust MMIP?

Our combination of access and customization is unique in the marketplace. Through our strong reputation, industry relationships, sophisticated client base and the network of our senior professionals, we see outstanding deals flow from high-quality, institutional managers. They are attracted to our boutique firm, which is large enough to make significant contributions to funds, yet small enough to use more nimble strategies that larger firms may have to overlook.

Importantly, relationships with our clients are central to our approach. Managers cannot compensate us to be included in our program. Rather, our fees are based on account assets under management, so our interests are aligned with yours, and we seek to select the best strategies and managers for your customized portfolio.