Angel Oak Capital Advisors, an investment management firm specialising in value-driven structured credit investments, has hired Jim Calla as senior vice president, institutional business development.
In this role, he will oversee the expansion of Angel Oak’s institutional sub-advisory role for bank-owned life insurance (BOLI) separately managed accounts. Calla will help facilitate the relationships between bank clients, insurance carriers and Angel Oak’s expert portfolio management team to deliver high-touch investment solutions that meet the needs of today’s regional and community banks.
Angel Oak sees immense opportunity to provide separately managed account solutions for BOLI products and is already active in the space. BOLI, a form of life insurance purchased by banks, is a tax-efficient financial instrument commonly used to help fund employee benefits.
“Jim is the perfect addition to our team as we look to expand and evolve our role in the banking sector through BOLI portfolio management services,” says Manish Valecha, head of client solutions at Angel Oak. “Having a dedicated business development manager in this space who can help achieve long-term-growth goals is crucial to delivering solutions to meet the needs of bank clients.”
Angel Oak’s focus on the financial sector primarily relates to investing in regional and community banks through a variety of open-ended mutual funds and private strategies. In the BOLI space, Angel Oak believes its out-of-the-box approach and ability to identify dislocations across credit markets make it an attractive portfolio management solution for banks seeking potentially higher-yielding investment solutions.
“Joining Angel Oak is an exciting opportunity for me to help the team — which is well versed in the banking sector — expand an important area of their business,” says Calla. “I look forward to working with banking institutions and the Angel Oak team as we bring new solutions to the BOLI space and grow Angel Oak’s presence even further in this area.”
Calla has more than 30 years of experience in the financial sector. Most recently, he served as the national sales director at Meyer-Chatfield Group. Prior to that, he was the owner of World Currency USA, which facilitates foreign exchange transactions on behalf of community banks. Calla is also a member of several boards.