the economics of independence, the
adviser’s options for moving forward,
and the role of the custodian.
Principal Financial Group said its new
Life Events kit offers financial professionals marketing materials to identify
and help clients through life events,
such as getting married, buying a
home, or retiring.
Wealth2k offers a free white paper,
“Embracing a New Retirement &
Communications Framework,” for financial advisers. The firm said the future
success of advisers in the retirement
income space depends upon both
effective investing and communication
strategies, including the Web.
Investment advisers who custody with
Charles Schwab now can access a
Web site boasting more intuitive tools
to manage client accounts. Schwab
Advisor Center, located at www.
schwabadvisorcenter.com, integrates
with Schwab Data Delivery (formerly
SchwabLink), the company’s data
files delivery and data management
application.
Advisors Trusted Advisor now offers
the Roth 2010 Conversion Package,
containing marketing tools, education
materials, and a Roth conversion tool,
available through the Roth 2010 Advisor
Portal.
LPL Financial Corporation launched
its Retirement Plus Program, offered
through the company’s recently
formed Retirement Plan Consulting
Group. The program offers an array
of retirement plan products, as well
as recordkeeping and plan administration services through CPI Qualified
Plan Consultants, Guardian Retirement
Services, ING, and The Principal Financial Group.
INVESTMENT
BENCHMARKING
Standard & Poor’s Index Services
launched the S&P Securities Lending
Index Series, seeking to reflect the
average securities-lending rate for the
constituents of the S&P 500, S&P MidCap
400, S&P SmallCap 600, and the under-
lying GICS sector sub-indexes for all
three leading U.S. equity benchmarks.
Morningstar, Inc., has launched the
latest version of Morningstar Direct, a
Web-based platform that connects
institutional investment professionals
to investment research and data. The
most significant enhancement is the
Presentation Studio interface, which
allows asset managers, consultants,
institutional investors, and retirement
plan sponsors to create fully customized reports, presentations, and fact
sheets featuring their company’s brand
design.
Russell Investments developed the
Russell Target Date Metric product,
which offers a returns-based measure
of how well a target-date fund family
performed over a specific time period.
The offering’s methodology was
designed to measure conventional
performance universes over typical
historical intervals, such as three
months, one year, and three years,
Russell said.
J.P. Morgan Worldwide Securities
Services (WSS) has developed an asset
allocation and manager selection
analysis application, Portfolio Construction Tool, which allows plan sponsors
and other institutional investors to see
which portfolios potentially generate
the optimal risk-adjusted returns.
INVESTMENTS
The Vanguard Group filed a registration statement with the Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC) for seven
new bond index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to be launched
in late 2009. The funds will offer ETF
Shares and Signal Shares with expected
expense ratios of 0.15%, and Institutional Shares with an expense ratio of
0.09%.
The Vanguard Group shuttered its
PRIMECAP Core Fund (VPCCX) to
advisers and institutional clients such
as defined benefit plans, endowments,
and foundations, but the $3.8-billion
fund remains open without purchase
limits to defined contribution plan
participants.
JennisonDryden, the proprietary mutual
fund family of Prudential Financial, Inc.,
added the Dryden Total Return Bond
Fund (PDBAX) to the fixed-income allocation of its full lineup of asset allocation funds.
Tactical ETF Strategies, a division of
Gerard Asset Management, LTD, was
available for employer-sponsored
retirement plans, effective October 1.
The Tactical ETF Strategies are actively
managed, risk-controlled strategies that
increase or decrease the equity exposure based on a quantitative methodology of anticipating risk.
Halter Financial Investments L.P.
combined forces with Euro Pacific
Capital Inc. to launch the EPH China
Fund (ticker: EPHCX), designed to give
investors access to companies doing
business in China. The fund will be
managed by Euro Pacific Halter Asia
Management, Inc.
The Hartford Mutual Funds has
reopened The Hartford MidCap Value
Fund to new investors. The fund, which
is subadvised by Wellington Management Company, LLP, has been closed
to new investors since August 2004.
PIMCO has launched the PIMCO Real
Income Funds, mutual funds designed
to provide retirees a steady stream
of monthly income hedged against
inflation. The funds utilize a laddered
portfolio of primarily Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) and initially
will be offered in two maturities, 2019
and 2029.
Putnam Investments launched a Web
site to support its nine Putnam Global
Sector Funds targeting stocks in sectors
across the MSCI World Index. The site
includes streaming video, analyst Q&As,
and stock research stories that will
rotate to provide coverage of specific
funds and analysts and offer insight
about timely issues.
