VanEck Wide Moat Strategy Now Available on AssetMark SMA Platform

VanEck is today announcing that the VanEck Morningstar Wide Moat Strategy is now available on AssetMark’s Separately Managed Account (SMA) platform, providing access to Morningstar’s approach to investing in quality companies at attractive valuations to financial advisors on the platform.

The “wide moat” strategy is a simple but highly differentiated approach to equity investing, powered by Morningstar’s forward-looking, rigorous equity research process. The strategy seeks to track the Morningstar Wide Moat Focus Index, the same index underpinning the $14B VanEck Morningstar Wide Moat ETF (MOAT), which has delivered strong long-term performance relative to the S&P 500 since its launch in April of 2012.

Morningstar’s equity research team researches and assigns an economic moat rating to companies based on their ability to fend off competition and maintain profitability into the future, and develops a fair value estimate. To be eligible for inclusion in the index, a company must have “wide moat” status—meaning Morningstar expects it to maintain its competitive advantages for at least 20 years—and be trading at an attractive price relative to Morningstar’s fair value estimate.

“In a world where investment solutions are becoming increasingly commoditized, financial advisors need differentiated strategies to meet the complex needs of their clients. We are excited to deliver Morningstar’s moat investing approach to identifying quality companies at attractive prices to AssetMark’s SMA’s platform,” said Brandon Rakszawski, Director of Product Management with VanEck.

The addition of the VanEck Morningstar Wide Moat Strategy to AssetMark’s SMA platform builds on the strategic relationship between the two firms. Since July 2023, AssetMark has worked with VanEck to offer the VanEck Thematic Disruption Strategy on its platform. This model of ETFs focuses on innovative long-term secular thematic trends, including the future of technology, energy, health and finance. The VanEck Thematic Disruption Strategy was updated to include exposure to bitcoin through the VanEck Bitcoin Trust (HODL) shortly after the fund’s launch.

AssetMark is a leading platform for custom model and investment solutions. AssetMark’s extensive due diligence and thorough curation process is applied to their selection and offering of models to support the dynamic needs of their investors.

“Models are an increasingly important part of financial advisors’ toolkits and AssetMark has a proven track record of adapting its suite of model offerings to meet evolving investor needs. We’re very pleased that they have added our Wide Moat Strategy to their SMA lineup and have also been excited to see the response our Thematic Disruption Strategy has received to this point,” said Ed Lopez, Head of Product Management with VanEck.