Santa Monica-based Wilshire Associates' efforts concentrate on the technology and analytical side of the consultancy business. It does not see itself in the same category as the likes of Frank Russell or Buck Consultants. It has established a name for itself in the US for developing investment tools, asset allocation models and performance measurement products as well as encompassing more traditional investment consultancy functions and brokerage services. Its main European efforts are focused in the Netherlands and the UK where it actively markets its equity and bond portfolio management tools, Atlas and Axiom. Wilshire will soon be launching Compass, a combined asset allocation, manager research and performance measurement programme, into Europe and is developing Spectrum, which will allow balanced fund managers to conduct in-depth performance attribution on that fund so they can really see how much of the performance came from the debts in equities, fixed income and cash," says Robert Raab, senior vice president. Wilshire sees a particular gap in the European market, where Spectrum will be made available later this year. "We see more interest in the markets in Europe only because the institutional managers there are using more balanced managers than you see here in the US." Wilshire will also be launching its Trust Universe Comparison Service (TUCS), a co-operative effort between custodians and Wilshire. Custodians submit asset positions and performance data to be pooled into universes ofmanaged tax-exempt portfolios. Wilshire markets this to more than 300 US pension funds."

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