Products December 15, 2008

Curian Capital Introduces Income-Focused Strategies

Curian Capital, LLC, said it has expanded its Custom Style Portfolios to include two income-focused strategiesâ€″one based on equities and the other on fixed-incomeâ€″aimed at retirees.
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Curian Capital, a registered investment adviser (RIA) that provides a fee-based separately managed account (SMA) platform to financial professionals, said its new Income Implementation Strategies include an Active-Income equity strategy and a fixed-income Yield Focus Portfolio. The strategies will seek to emphasize income generation while attempting to protect investors against the negative effects of inflation, according to a press release.

Curian’s Active-Income strategy broadens the firm’s current menu of Equity Implementation Strategies, which also includes Active-Core, Active-Defensive, Blend, and Quantitative options. The Active-Income strategy seeks to offer clients the opportunity to generate an income stream that has the potential to grow over time, with asset managers concentrating on dividend-paying stocks, the company said.

Curian’s Yield Focus Portfolio is a new addition to the company’s fixed-income implementation strategy lineup, which also includes the Diversified Income Portfolio and the Tax-Exempt Fixed Income Portfolio. The strategy offers broad-based exposure to U.S. fixed-income securities, including a minority portion allocated to preferred stocks through investing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs). It will focus on sectors that Curian believes may provide higher levels of income than those in the broader investment-grade bond market, the firm said.

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“We designed the Curian platform to deliver customizable account portfolios that financial professionals can tailor according to the unique needs of their clients,’ said Michael Bell, president and CEO of Curian Capital, in the release.

Curian said its new Income Implementation Strategies “may be well-suited for retirees seeking a reliable source of income, as well as investors who want to balance a growth-oriented portfolio to achieve better diversification and potentially offset losses in volatile markets.’

“Curian’s implementation strategies differ from the traditional approach of trying to find the manager or stock with the best performance in that they focus on selecting a group of managers and investment vehicles that best suit the client’s temperament and historical investing behavior,’ said Steve Young, CIO for Curian Capital, in the release. “Our goal is to maximize the likelihood that investors will adhere to their strategic asset allocation plans over the long term, which is especially important during volatile markets.’

Curian also selected three new investment managers to assist with the Income Implementation Strategies: ClearBridge Advisors; Geneva Investment Management of Chicago, LLC; and Standard & Poor’s Investment Advisory Group.

More information is available at www.curian.com or by calling the Curian Sales Desk at 877.847.4192.

Products December 15, 2008

Fidelity Reports Success, Enhancements of HybridOne

Fidelity Investments introduced single sign-on and referral program features to its HybridOne offering for dually registered advisers.
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Fidelity said advisers are now able to sign on to their workstations just once to view both their commission- and fee-based account activity across the two brokerage platforms, according to a release. The firm said single sign-on delivers tighter integration between National Financial’s broker and adviser workstation, Streetscape, and Fidelity’s RIA workstation, AdvisorCHANNEL—scheduled to be replaced by Fidelity WealthCentral next year (see “Fidelity Investments Launches WealthCentral’).

Other enhancements include the HybridOne B/D Connect Program, which can refer advisers to a network of broker/dealer client firms on National Financial’s platform that are willing to accept commission assets from RIAs. Fidelity and National Financial also launched the HybridOne RIA Connect Program, which compensates broker/dealer client firms that successfully refer fee business to Fidelity.

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HybridOne, launched in June (see “Fidelity’s HybridOne Manages Both Commission and Fee Business’), is an offering designed to help firms and advisers manage their commission- and fee-based business. Since the offering launched, Fidelity said it has attracted 104 hybrid clients with $13 billion in assets. Those firms selecting HybridOne include The Leaders Group, Medallion Advisory Services, LLC, Monarch Capital, Mutual Securities, Spire Investment Partners, and Strategic Wealth Partners.

According to National Financial research, the hybrid market is one of the fastest growing segments of financial advisers in the U.S., with the majority of all brokers and advisers managing some combination of commission and fee business, according to the release. Fidelity said the interest among firms and advisers in the hybrid model is growing rapidly, especially as the trend of brokers considering going independent accelerates (see “Competition for Advisers Heats Up’).

More information is available at www.FidelityHybridOne.com.

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