Products October 16, 2012

Invesco PowerShares Launches High-Dividend ETF

Invesco PowerShares Capital Management LLC announced the anticipated listing of the PowerShares S&P 500 High Dividend Portfolio on October 18 on the NYSE Arca.
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The new exchange-traded fund (ETF), based upon the S&P Low Volatility High Dividend index, is expected to trade under the ticker SPHD and will provide access to the 50 securities in the S&P 500 Index that historically have provided high dividend yields with lower volatility. 

“The PowerShares S&P 500 High Dividend Portfolio (SPHD) combines two key objectives that are important to many investors today: an emphasis on high dividend equities with the well-documented benefits of low-volatility securities,” said Ben Fulton, Invesco PowerShares managing director of global ETFs. “The fund’s underlying index is designed to perform well in absolute terms and on a risk-adjusted basis compared to the S&P 500 Index, and had an average dividend yield of 4.51% as of September 30, 2012.”  

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The fund will generally invest at least 90% of its total assets in securities that comprise the underlying index. The index is compiled, maintained and calculated by S&P Dow Jones Indices and is designed to track the performance of 50 securities selected from the S&P 500 Index that have historically provided high dividend yields with lower volatility. The index provider screens the S&P 500 Index for the 75 securities with the highest dividend yields over the past 12 months and, from those securities, selects the 50 securities with the lowest realized volatility for inclusion in the underlying index. The index provider weights each of the securities in the index by its dividend yield, with the highest dividend-yielding stocks receiving the highest weights. The index is rebalanced semi-annually.  

The PowerShares S&P 500 High Dividend Portfolio (SPHD) listing will expand the available range of PowerShares Factor-Driven ETFs to 13. With more than $3.7 billion in assets under management, the PowerShares suite of Factor-Driven ETFs provides advisers and investors with an approach for optimizing portfolios to changing market conditions using factor tilts to low volatility, high beta, high quality, relative strength and soon high-dividend strategies.  

For more information, visit http://invescopowershares.com.

 

Products October 16, 2012

ShareBuilder 401k Launches Fee Disclosure Tools

ShareBuilder 401k introduced online tools and resources to help plan sponsors and employees better understand their 401(k) fee disclosure statements and determine fee reasonabless.
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For plan sponsors, www.401kcomparison.com offers tools to help compare current 401(k) plan with a low-cost plan (priced at less than 1% in fees). The tool requests information from a plan sponsor’s new fee disclosure document and produces a five-year projection of the company’s current plan versus a low-cost plan, including both employer-paid and employee-paid expenses.

For participants, www.401kfeefighters.com tools aim to help calculate and understand 401(k) fees, and provides tips to help lower plan expenses and maximize 401(k) savings. It also includes tips about how to approach employers with ways to lower costs.

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A recent survey by ShareBuilder401k found that 83% of employers still have questions about their 401(k) fee disclosure notices and are unsure about next steps. (See “Fee Disclosures Cause Confusion.”)

“The new 401(k) disclosures are intended to provide greater access to and understanding of 401(k) plans, but a lot of confusion remains,” said ShareBuilder 401k President Stuart Robertson. “These new tools are designed to help employees and employers better understand their 401(k) plans and inherent costs—and most importantly, learn ways to lower fees so they’re positioned to save more for retirement.”

For more information, visit www.sharebuilder401k.com.

 

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