WESTERLY – Washington Trust Wealth Management has selected Smartleaf Inc. to provide technology that can be used across its three investment-management divisions, Weston Financial Group Inc., Washington Trust Investors and 1800 Asset Management.

The Smartleaf technology will enable Washington Trust Wealth Management, a division of The Washington Trust Co., to implement an open-architecture overlay program that combines proprietary models, third-party managers, mutual funds, fixed-income and exchange-traded funds.

Washington Trust, a subsidiary of Westerly-based Washington Trust Bancorp Inc., said the move will enable the division to create and maintain a comprehensive solution that will leverage each investment group’s strengths, without additional hiring.

According to Jerry Michael, CEO of Smartleaf, “Washington Trust Wealth Management is creating an industry-leading, open-architecture overlay program that leapfrogs the offerings of [its] competitors,” said Jerry Michael, CEO of Cambridge, Mass.-based Smartleaf. “We are honored to have been selected by Washington Trust and look forward to supporting [its] efforts to aggressively expand market share and profitability.”

Galan Daukas, executive vice president of Washington Trust Wealth Management, said, “Smartleaf has partnered with some exceptional clients who provided strong references and metrics to us. [It] also has a five-year track record of success.”

Washington Trust said its investment professionals work in concert to provide clients with comprehensive planning and investment-management solutions.

Smartleaf will enable Washington Trust to couple its own proprietary capabilities with those of the world's top money managers.

Each day, the Smartleaf technology analyzes every portfolio against the target allocation and generates tax-lot level trade recommendations with written explanations for rationale for the portfolio managers, Washington Trust said.

Washington Trust Wealth Management is a division of The Washington Trust Co., a subsidiary of Washington Trust Bancorp (Nasdaq: WASH), based in Westerly. Weston Financial Group Inc., Washington Trust Investors and 1800 Asset Management are divisions of Washington Trust Wealth Management. Washington Trust has offices in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and southeastern Connecticut. Additional information is available at www.washtrust.com.