Alliance Bernstein Global Wealth Management

AllianceBernstein is a research-driven investment firm that is global in scope and client-centered in its mission. We don't put our interests at odds with your interests, whether you are an investment-management client or a client of our sell-side research unit, Sanford C. Bernstein.

Who We Are

We believe research excellence is the key to better outcomes, so we've built research capabilities with exceptional breadth, depth and focus on innovation, on the buy-side and the sell-side.

We start by asking you to tell us about yourself. Then, we focus on helping you solve the increasingly complex investment challenges you face. We listen first; then we put our research to work to find the solution that's right for you.
Our asset-management clients have diverse needs, so we've developed a broad array of global and local investment services that spans geographies, asset classes, styles and objectives for risk and return: from customized and packaged multi-asset class solutions to style-pure growth and value equity portfolios, blend equity strategies to fixed-income portfolios, and index services to alternative investments. We manage $461 billion of assets across our investment services.

Our Clients

Charities, endowments, and foundations face many challenges in managing their assets, as the investment landscape has never been more challenging than it is today. At AllianceBernstein, we have a long history of working with charities, endowments and foundations of various types and sizes, and of helping them achieve their objectives. We understand that no two clients are alike and that tailoring the needs of our clients is essential.

Much of the success Trustees experience with AllianceBernstein is driven by our clear understanding of the needs unique to them. As an example, we have launched in-depth research into how Private Foundations can better align their spending policy with their mission. Private foundations have always faced a balancing act between investing for perpetuity and spending to meet their beneficiaries' needs. Investing the majority of their assets in the stock market can help them achieve the capital growth they require for greater longevity, but a large stock allocation introduces volatile investment returns, with a potentially negative impact on grant-making.

In our research, we explored the trade-offs between various spending policies using historical analysis and proprietary quantitative modeling tools. The research arrived at important and possibly surprising conclusions: First, most foundations should not assume that a required 5% spending minimum is their optimal policy-spending policy and asset allocation is best aligned with a foundation's mission. Second, many foundations can benefit from using multi-year smoothing formulas to limit fluctuations in spending-despite the fact that foundation directors often don't believe smoothing formulas are viable. Third, foundations can adopt a "stable giving" approach-always giving away the same amount, or more, as they gave away in the previous year-without substantially shortening their longevity.

Our Research

We like to say that research is in our DNA. Research is not simply a priority for AllianceBernstein, it is part of what defines us and distinguishes our firm. Excellence in research and trading is the core of our sell-side research unit's business. Our asset-management business has additional dimensions, but it is from research that all else flows.

Our commitment to knowing more has led us to build one of the broadest research footprints in the asset-management industry. Our research disciplines include fundamental research, quantitative research, economic research and currency forecasting. In addition, we have created several specialist research units, including one that examines broad trends that affect multiple industries and geographies. Our portfolio managers take all of these research inputs into account when selecting securities and constructing portfolios.

Our large teams of quantitative analysts develop tools to increase the likelihood of client success. Some quantitative tools help our fundamental analysts improve their forecast accuracy. Others help our portfolio managers to construct better portfolios. Our quantitative risk-and-return models and asset-allocation research also help us craft effective customized and packaged investment solutions for individuals and institutional investors of various types. Some research focuses on complex wealth-management issues for individuals involving taxation, single-stock concentration, intergenerational wealth transfer and charitable giving. Other research focuses on complex asset-allocation problems, including liability-driven investment management and liquidity management.
As a firm and as individuals, we are committed to continuous improvement. We want our research to define thought leadership about current conditions and emerging trends. Research is an important part of our proud past, and will be a key source of our continued growth in the future.

We offer a comprehensive range of investment services across regions and along the risk-and-return spectrum: style-pure growth equities and value equities; style blend equities; fixed income; index funds and structured services; alternative investments; and both customized and packaged multi-asset class solutions.
This wide array of investment services allows us to meet client needs regardless of home country, base currency or tax position. For large, separately managed accounts, many services can be customized to include or exclude countries or sectors, and can be further tailored to meet clients' benchmark sensitivity or asset-liability matching requirements.

Our History

AllianceBernstein traces its origins back more than 40 years. Sanford C. Bernstein was founded in 1967 as an investment-management firm for private clients. Alliance Capital was founded in 1971 when the investment-management department of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc., merged with the investment-advisory business of Moody's Investor Services, Inc.

In October 2000, Alliance Capital acquired Sanford C. Bernstein. Alliance Capital's expertise in growth equity and corporate fixed-income investing, and its family of retail mutual funds, complemented Bernstein's expertise in value equity and tax-exempt fixed-income management, and its private-client business. This combination became a recipe for success with few precedents in the industry.