Touchstone To Convert To Integrated Fund Services

Touchstone Advisors is converting the $3 billion Constellation Funds from SEI Investments and DST Systems to Integrated Fund Services. The service provider switch is part of Touchstone's desire to integrate all of its subadvised funds to one back-office platform. Touchstone uses Integrated; both are owned by Western & Southern Financial Group.

Jim Grifo, president of Touchstone, said the firm, which markets a family of subadvised funds, wants a common platform and common brand and hopes to complete the two efforts this summer. The Constellation brand will be dropped in favor of Touchstone. Grifo said the firm will run a print campaign in trade publications geared to advisors, but the timing won't be finalized until after the back-office conversion.

He also plans to have Touchstone represented at the Morningstar and Charles Schwab & Co. advisor conferences. As part of the Constellation purchase, Touchstone now has access to some premier institutional managers that subadvised funds to Constellation, including Diamond Hill Capital Management, Pitcairn Investment Management, Turner Investment Partners and Clover Capital Management. A DST spokeswoman confirmed the switch and said Touchstone is a full-service transfer agency client.