Company Profile
State Street Global Advisors
Company Overview
For nearly four decades, State Street Global Advisors has been committed to helping our clients, and those who rely on them, achieve financial security. We partner with many of the world’s largest, most sophisticated investors and financial intermediaries to help them reach their goals through a rigorous, research-driven investment process spanning both indexing and active disciplines. With trillions1 in assets, our scale and global reach offer clients unrivaled access to markets, geographies and asset classes, and allow us to deliver thoughtful insights and innovative solutions.
State Street Global Advisors is the investment management arm of State Street Corporation.
Who We Work With
Our clients include corporations, private and public pension plans, endowments and foundations, sovereign wealth funds, central banks and intermediary investors. Their challenges – and ultimately, the people that depend on them for financial security – are what keep us coming to work every day.
Wide Range of Capabilities
A pioneer in index investing, SSGA today has one of the most comprehensive product and solutions offerings in the industry, with capabilities spanning both traditional and non-traditional asset classes across the full range of active and index investing disciplines. The firm also provides industry-leading currency exposure, risk and cash management to some of the world’s largest institutions.
A World of Know-How
When investors work with SSGA, they’re getting a highly collaborative, engaged partner with a passion for paying forward what we’ve learned over more than 35 years of helping clients navigate all types of market cycles and conditions. Success is the end target, and SSGA is thoroughly committed to helping you and your stakeholders get there.
Solutions-Oriented to the Core
Lots of asset managers talk the talk about solutions. SSGA walks the walk, so much so that we established our Investment Solutions Group (ISG) in 2011, a team of more than 70 global investment professionals with deep experience as plan sponsors, portfolio managers and researchers in asset allocation, downside risk management, liability-driven investing and fiduciary advisory services.3 ISG works closely with our large institutional clients every day to truly understand their objectives, and this input informs the solutions we ultimately build and deploy on their behalf.
Client-Focused Innovation
We believe that successful investing requires cutting-edge thinking at every turn. We’re proud of the role we’ve played in conceptualizing, building, improving, and introducing products and solutions that have fundamentally re-shaped the investment landscape and, more importantly, helped investors reach their goals.
GRAPHIC: SSGA BY THE NUMBERS4
400+ (global investment professionals)
4,000+ (retirement accounts managed)
$2.4 trillion (assets under management)
150+ (custom research projects for clients annually)
22 (number of central bank clients)5
$423 billion (assets managed for official government institutions)6
1Assets under management were $2.4 trillion as of March 31, 2015.
2As of December 31, 2014
3As of December 31, 2014
4Data as of September 30, 2014 except where noted.
5As of June 30, 2014
6As of June 30, 2014
Company History
State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) works closely with investors to better understand their needs and objectives, and to develop thoughtful, precise solutions that can help meet a wide range of investment goals. From our roots as an indexing pioneer to our capabilities in active, smart beta and alternatives, our clients’ investing challenges have been a catalyst for our innovation for more than 35 years.
1978 – SSGA is established to provide investment management services to institutional investors; the firm launches one of the industry’s first index equity funds.
1979 – Building on its early indexing success in the US, SSGA goes international, introducing one of the industry’s first MSCI EAFTE Index funds.
1984 – SSGA complements its indexing prowess with new active quantitative equity strategies, meeting investor demand for systematic approaches to portfolio management and their underlying return drivers.
1990 – We open our first non-US locations in London and Hong Kong; live trading desks in both locations offer clients local insight and execution capabilities across all major regional markets.
1993 – Together with the American Stock Exchange, SSGA launches SPDR - the first and still the largest ETF that today is the world’s most liquid investment.1 The product offers investors broader, more efficient access to capital markets.
1998 – SSGA launches Sector SPDRs, the industry’s first family of sector-specific ETFs offering tactical asset allocation strategies to more investors.
1999 – Our collaborative work with the government of Hong Kong results in Asia ex-Japan’s first ETF, the Tracker Fund of Hong Kong, which offers vital diversification and unprecedented access to markets for local investors.2
1999 – We pioneer multi-asset class, liability-driven investing strategies designed to be more closely aligned with plan sponsors’ risk, return and cash-flow objectives.
2000 – We create one of the first groups dedicated to serving the investment needs of sovereign wealth funds, central banks and government entities. SSGA’s Official Institutions Group (OIG) today serves nearly 70 official institutions and manages more than US$420 billion globally.3
2003 – Assets under management surpass $1 trillion.
2004 – SSGA and the World Gold Council launch the first gold-backed, exchange-traded security in the US market; the fund raises more than US$2 billion in just two months.
2008 – We introduce Managed Volatility Strategies, providing clients with a new risk management tool seeking compelling equity returns with less volatility.
2010 – The firm reaches US$2 trillion in worldwide assets under management.
2011 – SSGA forms the Investment Solutions Group (ISG), an experienced team of global professionals that works closely with clients to develop custom portfolio solutions to meet their investment objectives.
2011 – The firm launches Global Macro, an investment strategy that pursues opportunities across a wide range of asset classes and geographies, investing in a mix of traditional assets and alternatives that seek to capture value and hedge downside risk.
2012 – We partner with Blackstone/GSO to offer the first-of-its-kind actively managed senior loan ETF, providing exchange-traded access to one of the world’s premier managers of this highly sought asset class.
2014 – SSGA expands its presence in the UK defined contribution marketplace with the launch of the Timewise Target Retirement Funds, a series of target-date funds aimed at providing better default options for workplace pension plan participants.
2014 – SSGA is the only US-based asset manager selected by the European Central Bank to help manage its asset-backed securities purchase program.
Notable Products / Brands
Delivering innovative, client-focused solutions since 1978.