The Markets January 9, 2012

U.S. ETF Industry up 5.5% for 2011

ETF flows topped $19 billion in December 2011.
 
Reported by

According to the State Street Global Advisors (SSga) ETF Snapshot report, The Large Cap category had the most significant inflows in December with $11.4 billion entering the category. The Fixed Income category continued to see positive inflows, attracting $6.1 billion in December and $44.7 billion year-to-date.

The S&P 500 Index gained 1.0% while the MSCI EAFE Index fell 0.9%. Commodities were negative, with the S&P GSCI Index down 2.1% and Gold falling 12.3%. U.S. Bonds were positive with the Barclays U.S. Treasury Index up 1.0% and the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index up 1.1%.

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The top three managers in the U.S. ETF marketplace were: BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard. Collectively, they account for approximately 83% of the U.S. listed ETF market.

The top three ETFs in terms of dollar volume traded for December were the SPDR S&P 500 [SPY], iShares Russell 2000 [IWM] and PowerShares QQQ [QQQ]. The top three ETFs in terms of assets for the month were the SPDR S&P 500 [SPY], SPDR Gold Shares [GLD] and Vanguard Emerging Markets [VWO].

International – Developed and Emerging Markets dropped 0.9% and 1.2%, respectively. Domestic Large Cap and Small Cap markets gained 1.0% and 1.3%, while Mid Cap dipped 0.4%. The U.S. Aggregate, the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. Corporate Bond markets were all positive in December. Commodities fell 2.1%.

Deals & People January 9, 2012

NFP Acquires AGS Benefits Group

National Financial Partners Corp., a provider of benefits, insurance and wealth management services, acquired AGS Benefits Group, LLC (AGS Benefits).
Reported by

Simultaneously with this acquisition, NFP acquired the management company of Dreyfuss & Birke, Ltd. (NFP Dreyfuss & Birke), a wholly-owned subsidiary of NFP since 2003, and combined NFP Dreyfuss & Birke with AGS Benefits. This combination establishes a major NFP-branded corporate benefits presence in New York.

These transactions closed on January 3.

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The managing directors will be William Austin, Jordan Gray and Markum McCormick, managing directors of AGS Benefits; along with Paul Schnell, president of NFP Dreyfuss & Birke. They will report to Ed O’Malley, president of NFP Corporate Client Group.

“As a part of NFP for many years, we are thrilled to combine with AGS Benefits under the NFP brand in order to expand and improve our client offering and better coordinate our growth initiatives,” Schnell said.

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