Waddell & Reed Financial Announces Additional Actions to Enhance Organizational Agility and Accelerate Business Transformation
June 19 2019 - 5:00PM
Business Wire
Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. (NYSE: WDR) today announced
several additional steps to continue to position itself for future
organic and inorganic growth:
Brent Bloss, Chief Operating Officer, expands his role
overseeing all Company operations including technology enablement,
wealth management, investment risk management, investment
operations and trading, legal and compliance, transfer agency and
corporate administration. Ben Clouse, Chief Financial Officer, will
continue to oversee the finance function and adds responsibilities
for mutual fund accounting and procurement. He also will spearhead
and oversee the consolidation and enhancement of the
enterprise-wide data analytics function over the long-term.
Christopher Rackers has been named Chief Administrative Officer.
Rackers, who previously was Chief Human Resources Officer,
continues to oversee all human resources and internal
communications activities and adds responsibilities for corporate
real estate, enterprise project management organization (EPMO),
external communications, marketing, corporate strategic initiatives
and philanthropy.
Together with last week’s announcement of the hiring of Dan
Hanson as Chief Investment Officer, these additional steps position
the Company to accelerate its business transformation and better
enable long-term organizational agility and effectiveness.
In addition, the firm announced its intent to outsource the
transactional processing operations of its internal transfer agency
to SS&C Asset Manager Solutions (formerly DST Asset Manager
Solutions), one of the Company’s long-term technology partners. The
outsourcing process is anticipated to conclude by the end of 2019.
The Company expects the change to be seamless for fund
shareholders, financial advisors and business partners. The
Company’s client call center is not impacted by the move and will
remain in place, focused on ensuring great experiences for
financial advisors and fund shareholders.
“We continue to assess the servicing needs of clients through
the most efficient and cost-effective approaches,” Brent Bloss,
Chief Operating Officer stated. “The move to outsource
transactional processing operations to SS&C, our current
recordkeeping technology provider, positions us for a smooth
transition for all stakeholders.”
Savings generated from this move will help to reduce expenses to
mutual fund shareholders. The move will also simplify the
organizational structure and better position the organization to
achieve its long-term strategic objectives.
“As we transition to the next phase of our business
transformation focused on strategic growth, these leadership and
organizational changes will better enable us to be an agile,
fast-moving organization to effectively compete in today’s dynamic
marketplace,” said Philip Sanders, Chief Executive Officer.
About the Company
Through its subsidiaries, Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc. has
provided investment management and wealth management services to
clients throughout the United States since 1937. Today, we
distribute our investment products through the unaffiliated channel
under the IVY INVESTMENTS® brand (encompassing broker/dealer,
retirement, and registered investment advisors), our wealth
management channel (through independent financial advisors
associated with WADDELL & REED, INC.), and our institutional
channel (including defined benefit plans, pension plans, endowments
and subadvisory relationships). For more information, visit
ir.waddell.com.
IVY INVESTMENTS® refers to the investment management and
investment advisory services offered by Ivy Investment Management
Company, the financial services offered by Ivy Distributors, Inc.,
a FINRA member broker dealer and the distributor of the IVY FUNDS®
mutual funds and IVY VARIABLE INSURANCE PORTFOLIOS®, and the
financial services offered by their affiliates.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within
the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as
amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of
1934, as amended, which reflect the current views and assumptions
of management with respect to future events regarding our business
and industry in general. These forward-looking statements include
all statements, other than statements of historical fact, regarding
our business strategy and other plans and objectives for future
operations, including statements with respect to organic and
inorganic growth and the transformation of our business. These
statements are generally identified by the use of such words as
“will,” “continue,” “anticipated,” “intent,” and similar statements
of a future or forward-looking nature. Readers are cautioned that
any forward-looking information provided by us or on our behalf is
not a guarantee of future performance. Actual results may differ
materially from those contained in these forward-looking statements
as a result of various factors, including but not limited to those
disclosed in the “Risk Factors” section of our Annual Report on
Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018.
The foregoing factors should not be construed as exhaustive and
should be read together with other cautionary statements included
in this and other reports and filings we make with the Securities
and Exchange Commission, including the information in Item 1
“Business” of Part I and Item 7 “Management’s Discussion
and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of
Part II to our Annual Report on Form 10- K for
the year ended December 31, 2018 and as updated in our
quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for the year ending
December 31, 2019. All forward-looking statements speak only
as of the date on which they are made and we undertake no duty to
update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a
result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to
the extent required by law.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190619005468/en/
Roger HoadleyVP, Communicationsrhoadley@waddell.com
Waddell and Reed Financial (NYSE:WDR)
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