Vestmark Partners With First Trust on Model Portfolios
The tie-up gives registered investment advisors a white-label environment to build and oversee model portfolios using First Trust strategies.
Updated on Nov. 9, 2026 in Investing
Vestmark, a WealthTech firm, has joined forces with First Trust Portfolios to broaden customised model portfolios available to registered investment advisors. The partnership was announced on November 9, 2026.
Why it matters
The partners intend the collaboration to increase the range of model portfolio options open to advisors serving investors. For advisors, it offers a way to customise portfolios without building the underlying trading and tax infrastructure in-house.
Vestmark reports its technology underpins more than $2tn in assets, upwards of 5.5 million investor accounts and over 72,000 financial advisors, and works with six of the 10 biggest managed account programme providers. These are company-reported figures, and the offering's uptake has not yet been disclosed.
The players
Vestmark
Vestmark is a WealthTech firm that provides technology and services to the wealth management industry, including the Vestmark Model Marketplace.
First Trust Portfolios
First Trust Portfolios is an investment product and advisory services provider whose strategies form the basis of the new model portfolios.
The details
The offering covers strategies built on exchange-traded funds, mutual funds and interval funds, delivered through the Vestmark Model Marketplace. It uses Vestmark trading tools, tax-conscious portfolio transitions and continuous tax management to implement and maintain the portfolios.
Timeline
November 9, 2026: Vestmark and First Trust Portfolios announce the partnership.
Market Dynamics
The Vestmark Model Marketplace is the channel through which the new First Trust model portfolios are delivered to advisors. The partnership extends that marketplace's catalogue of customisable strategies rather than introducing a separate delivery system.
Investors whose advisors use the Vestmark platform may see a wider range of model portfolio options, including strategies built on ETFs, mutual funds and interval funds. Any change to an individual's holdings would depend on their advisor's decisions and the portfolio's tax treatment.
The takeaway
Investors working with an advisor can ask whether that advisor uses model portfolios and how their tax-management approach is applied. Understanding these choices can help investors evaluate whether a portfolio fits their goals.
Further reading
For more on how advisors build portfolios, see Investing.
Source note: This article includes information reported by FinTech Global.
