Frank Russell, the world's largest investment consultant, is the epitome of the type of consultant that money managers worry about, being the primary example of an organisation where the responsibilities of a consultant and an investment manager have become increasingly confused. That has not deterred the investment consultant from adding the strings to its bow in the European market, which have been firmly in place in its US operations for many years. Russell moved into the money management industry in the early 1980s and has remained there while the likes of SEI decided against it. Outside of the multi manager sphere Russell has established itself in the index markets running a total of 18 indices, including Russell 3000 and 2000, the former representing virtually all of the investible US equity market; and the 20-20 group, a delegation of money managers and pension funds seeking to explore the world's markets to gain knowledge of the best geographically-linked investments for Russells clients. Russell has not yet targetted the European defined contribution market, but that would seem to be the next logical move. The multi manager division is looking to expand down that path later this year, but the educational DC programme run in the US, LifePoints, is yet to become available to European corporates.

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