St. Louis-based financial services firm Edward Jones has added 12 model portfolios to its mutual fund and exchange-traded funds advisory programme, Edward Jones Advisory Solutions.

These new models combine active and passive investment styles in the same model portfolio.

Advisory Solutions is an asset allocation programme that allows investors to select from research or custom models with an initial minimum investment of USD50,000. 

Research models permit clients to delegate asset allocation, investment selection and portfolio rebalancing to Edward Jones. 

Using the firm's asset allocation guidelines, the Edward Jones investment advisory research committee and mutual fund research team select the mutual funds and ETFs in the programme and create research models. 

The programme now offers 38 research models, in addition to custom models, allowing investors to choose an investment strategy to match their needs. With the programme's custom models, clients retain discretion over the investment selection from the list of funds available in the programme.

The programme has grown to more than USD40bn in assets under management since its introduction in August 2008.

"We believe the additional research models will make Advisory Solutions attractive to those investors who want to combine the best attributes of active and passive investing styles to help pursue their investment objectives," says Bill Broderick, principal, investment advisory for Edward Jones. "We use the same due diligence process that we are known for in selecting actively managed mutual finds and are applying it to the selection of appropriate ETFs. Then we combine the two types of investments in an actively managed model portfolio."