The story
SEI was founded as Simulated Environments Inc in 1968 by its current Executive Chairman and former CEO, Alfred P. West, Jr. (also known as Al West). In the 1970s SEI developed an automated trust and investment accounting system for bank trust departments. In the 1990s SEI launched a wealth management operating platform for independent, fee-based investment advisors.
In 1994, SEI was an early investor of LSV Asset Management and currently still holds a significant stake in the firm.
In 2012 SEI was sued by investors in connection with the financial crimes committed by Allen Stanford. Stanford had sold investors bogus Certificates of Deposit (CDs) and the investors alleged that SEI, as well as other companies, had promoted and misrepresented the CDs as safe investments without performing appropriate due diligence. SEI responded that it merely provided a Stanford affiliate with back office services. As of September 2015 the case was still ongoing.
From Wikipedia’s article on SEI Investments Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6