July saw a boom in transition management, based on Harbor Analytics data, with 31 transactions accounting for 27% of total transitions for the first seven months of the year.
The July transactions involved a total of $23 billion in assets, said Ross McLellan, president of Harbor Analytics, a transition management research firm.
Year-to-date through July 31, 117 transition management transactions were made involving a total of $86 billion in assets.
Based on forecasts for transactions through the end of 2014, July transactions are expected to represent 16% of total activity for 2014 — three times the annual share for the month since 2012 when Harbor first began compiling transition data.
“There's no rhyme or reason” for the July increase, Mr. McLellan said. “They're all different clients doing different things for different reasons.”
In the first quarter, 41 transactions were made, or 35% of all transactions through July, on a total of $31 billion in assets. In the second quarter, 45 transactions, or 38%, involved $32 billion in assets transitioned.
Mr. McLellan said that, based on projections for transactions through the end of the year, the first quarter will have 21% of all 2014 transactions while the second quarter will have 22% of the year's transactions.
Strong equity returns led many investors to maintain their asset allocations in the first half of 2014, resulting in fewer transitions, Mr. McLellan said. The second half should see an increase in transition management transactions, he said, because of expected higher turnover in international and emerging markets equities, and more changes in fixed-income allocations, including high yield.
