Front Street Capital Management, a Missoula, Mont.-based registered investment advisor with more than $600 million in assets under management, has moved from Schwab to SEI for custody and technology.
Front Street was founded in 2006 by Russ Piazza, chief investment officer, and Michele Blood, chief operating officer. The firm specializes in ESG investing and runs its own no-load mutual fund, The Tarkio Fund (TARKX). The fund invests in companies that create “a perpetual culture of continuous improvement.” It charges a 1% management fee and has an investment minimum of $1,000.
“For more than 25 years, they have been identifying companies that they believe continuously improve through stakeholder engagement,” SEI said in a statement. “Front Street invests on the assumption that great managers can continually create more customer value by cultivating cultures that demonstrate high levels of cooperation, communication, trust and continual improvement philosophies.”
Blood said her firm chose SEI for its technology and advisor services and its support for Front Street’s investing activities. “SEI embodies our criteria for enduring, successful businesses and that is also a key differentiator for us,” she said in a statement.
“We’ve been huge fans of SEI’s culture for decades and have always admired their team of 5,000 problem-solvers, who are passionate about providing more value to their customers every day,” Piazza said in a statement. “In fact, Front Street has long been an admirer of SEI, and we even designed our own collaborative office layout based on SEI’s headquarters.”
As of Sept. 30, SEI had about $1.6 trillion in assets under management, advisement and administration. Just this week, SEI added several proprietary and third-party managed separately managed accounts to its Managed Account Solutions program, including products from AllianceBernstein, Loomis Sayles and Parametric Portfolio Associates.
