But that’s kind of the level that we’re looking at going forward. And the last thing I would obviously say this quite often, we’re very focused on margins. So fee rates will continue to move slightly in different directions, but I think the power of our operating platform really allows us to focus on margins.
Michael Brown: Okay, great. And Michael, you talked a lot about the platform additions for a number of your various different affiliates. When you look back historically, how did those additions start to contribute to flows? Could you give some thought on maybe the magnitude of pickups that you’ve seen in the past and then maybe speak to how quickly some of those flow benefits start to come through?
David Brown: Yes, it’s Dave. I’d start with WestEnd. You look at WestEnd Advisors, we own that business for all of 2022, and that was net flow positive. So that’s a very fast addition. They had a really great existing distribution platform and we’re expanding that. You could go back to one that we did pre-IPO, which was our ETF platform. That was done in 2015, and that has been a consistent grower that took a little bit of time, but that has been a consistent grower. We also look at the opportunity that we have with the USAA fixed income investments and that as we see fixed income accelerate, we think that will be a grower. Today it’s not, but we think that one will be a grower. The point is each one really has its own unique situation.
The concept is to take really excellent investment franchises and really plug that into our distribution network and expand out their opportunity set to gain more clients. And that has lots of different perspectives on that, and that’s what ranges in the different time and the different examples.
Michael Brown: Okay, great. Thanks David. I appreciate the color on the franchises there. Thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from Brennan Hawken with UBS.
Brennan Hawken: Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I’d like to start on the capital return side of things, buybacks robust again and you guys spoke to that a bit in a prior question. But one of the things that’s interesting when we speak to investors about Victory and the discount, as many point to the large private equity ownership and concern either, concern about when that ownership might end up winding down versus, or maybe that is a reason for the discount. So I’m curious about whether or not you have had any discussions with your owners. I appreciate that they probably don’t consider the current valuation levels as attractive to sell. And so it’s almost like a chicken and egg situation. What I’m trying to get at is, have you considered maybe a program with them that would allow you to allocate your buyback to chip away at their ownership, so that there could be a clear indication to the market that that ownership will grind down over time, which could allow for the private equity owners to see a path to exiting the position at an improving valuation and you could end up with a win-win situation?
David Brown: Yes, great question. I think first our private equity owners have liquidated and actually reduced their position quite significantly over the last few years and the ownership has come down quite significantly through a couple programs and so we’re happy with that. We also on the other hand, have done very well with the ownership of private equity. So having them as owners has not been a hindrance on the performance of the business. The board evaluates every time, every quarter, all different kinds of programs around what we do with our buyback, how we interact with our private equity shareholders. And so all of the things that you’ve mentioned we continue to evaluate. As we look forward, what we’re focused on is really performing from a business perspective.
