CHARLOTTE, NC (January 23, 2025) – Horizon Investments, LLC, a provider to the financial advisor community of customizable investment and technology solutions, announced that it will be the adviser of Horizon Funds’ first Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and named Clark Allen, CFA®, CPA, CAIA® as Head of ETFs. This initiative will expand Horizon’s ability to deliver its goals-based approach to financial advisors and their clients.
Launched on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on January 22nd these two ETFs mark the firm’s entry into the rapidly expanding active ETF market. These new offerings are the first in a planned family of solutions designed to complement and diversify Horizon’s existing goals-based offering and enhance its ability to support financial advisors in delivering tailored, outcome-focused solutions to their clients.
- The Horizon Expedition Plus ETF (HBTA) seeks higher volatility compared to the large-cap equity market by combining large-cap U.S. stocks with options strategies (buying and selling put and call options) to generate extra income.
- The Horizon Landmark ETF (BENJ) seeks total return by investing in U.S. Treasury Bills with maturities ranging from one to three months (as well as ETFs that have substantial exposure to such T-bills) and by engaging in options transactions such as spreads and other option combinations.
“Horizon’s operating principles are grounded in innovating how advisors can meet the unique goals of each of their clients. We have spent a lot of time over the last 18 months hearing from our financial advisor clients about what they’d like to see next from us regarding new solutions,” said John Drahzal, President & CEO of Horizon Investments. “I can think of no better person to lead these efforts than Clark as we embark on this next phase in our organization’s evolution.”
In this newly created position, Allen, who has been at Horizon since 2019 and previously served as the Director of Quantitative Research, will oversee the firm’s ambitious ETF endeavors. “The needs of today’s advisors are only getting more complex, so the tools available to the advisor community must keep pace,” added Allen. “As my colleagues and I look across the ETF landscape, we see a great deal of innovation taking place. The differentiated suite we are crafting will provide powerful new building blocks for advisors who adhere to the ‘rep-as-PM’ ethos.”
“Clark’s background and work in the quantitative and systematic investing side of our organization will be critical as he leads our efforts to design, build, and launch our suite of active ETFs designed to deliver expectational certainty to our advisors, a feature we believe is critical for goals-based portfolios,” said Scott Ladner, CIO of Horizon Investments. “We are thrilled to be introducing HBTA and BENJ, and we look forward to conversations with advisors about the exposures these funds provide and how we can continue to help them with their important work in helping their clients reach financial goals and supporting the growth of their firms.”
