First Trust Capital Buys Direct Indexer Veriti

What You Need to Know

The First Trust-Veriti transaction is the 12th acquisition in the direct-indexing field over the past few years.
The news comes about two weeks after Fidelity Investments announced the rollout of its digital brokerage platform for retail investors.

First Trust Capital Partners says it has struck a deal to buy Veriti Management, a direct indexing asset management and financial technology firm. The transaction is expected to close on July 31, according to First Trust.

First Trust works with about $203 billion of assets. Its First Trust Advisors unit supervises unit investment trusts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, mutual funds and separate managed accounts, while First Trust Portfolios serves as the sponsor and distributor of these products. Both entities are based in Wheaton, Illinois.

Veriti has about $1 billion on its platform, according to Gavin Spitzner, head of Wealth Consulting Partners. Spitzner tweeted early Wednesday: “$200bb @ftportfolios acquiring one of the last remaining independent direct indexing ‘pure play’ providers – $1bb Veriti Management.”

The First Trust-Veriti transaction is the 12th acquisition in the direct-indexing field over the past few years, he explained, adding. “Here’s my updated Direct Indexing market map showing that virtually every pure play DI solution has been swept up with almost all the remaining independent firms offering DI as a subset of a broader solution.”

The news comes about two weeks after Fidelity Investments announced that the rollout of its digital brokerage platform will let do-it-yourself retail investors design customized index portfolios using fractional shares.