InfraHedge, State Street’s managed account infrastructure provider, has been selected by Wilshire Funds Management to provide operational and risk services for the Wilshire Managed Account Platform.

Wilshire has been advising clients on absolute return strategies since the early 1990s and was an early adopter of separately managed accounts for hedge fund investments. As the managed account market has evolved, Wilshire has refined its platform and selected InfraHedge to provide the next generation of operational and risk infrastructure including daily position-level risk reporting.

“Our managed account platform is an important differentiator as we continue to expand our presence as a premier provider of hedge fund advisory solutions,” said Jason Schwarz, president of Wilshire Funds Management. “Risk management is at the core of our business and we are thrilled to be working with InfraHedge to enhance our offering and improve transparency for our clients.”

InfraHedge, a managed account platform with $11.5 billion of assets under management, was launched in 2011 in order to allow institutional investors and allocators to set up managed account platforms to their own specification and design.

By leaving decisions on manager selection and asset allocation to its clients, InfraHedge effectively separates asset management from infrastructure services, the company said.

“As the hedge fund investing landscape continues to evolve and more firms turn to managed accounts, we are proud to be supporting Wilshire’s innovative managed account platform,” said Robert Picard, president of InfraHedge USA. “We believe that the level of transparency and control in this next generation of platform will provide a degree of flexibility and scalability that will lead to significant asset growth.”

Helen Webb-Thompson, a managing director of Wilshire Associates who heads Wilshire Funds Management’s Operations and Risk Management Group, said that InfraHedge was chosen for its managed account capability and a business model that is highly complementary to its own.

“We have been very impressed with the speed and discipline of InfraHedge’s implementation and the rigorous operating model that has been put in place for us,” said Webb-Thompson. “Collaboration and customization are key to our Managed Account Platform and we felt that InfraHedge was the ideal fit for our model.”

Akshaya Bhargava, founder and CEO of InfraHedge, said: “We are strong believers in the benefits of managed accounts for hedge fund investing and are delighted to have been chosen by Wilshire for their platform enhancement, Wilshire Funds Management is well known as one of the leading proponents of transparency and customization for sophisticated investors and this closely matches our own culture.”