Products September 28, 2007

XShares Announces Real Estate ETF Offering

XShares Advisors LLC’s newest family of funds, Adelante Shares Real Estate Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), began trading Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.
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The family of funds was developed in conjunction with Adelante Shares LLC and provides investors with a new approach to investing in real estate investment trusts (REITs), according to a company announcement. The Adelante Shares Real Estate family of funds separate the market into six distinct REIT-specific characteristics based on Adelante Shares’ proprietary classification of the real-estate sector.

The Adelante Shares Real Estate family of funds is comprised of seven ETFs that focus on funds from operations (FFO), growth rates (growth vs.value), square footage under management, number of units under management, dividend CAGR (compound annual growth rate) vs. CPI
(consumer price index) CAGR, and dividend payout ratio along with a composite.

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The ETFs include:

  • Adelante Shares RE Classics(TM) ETF (ACK): Seeks to capture the greatest amount of U.S. non-residential, non-lodging property.
  • Adelante Shares RE Kings(TM) ETF (AKB): Seeks to capture REITs with conservative dividends.
  • Adelante Shares RE Shelter(TM) ETF (AQS): Seeks to capture the residential real estate sector.
  • Adelante Shares RE Yield Plus(TM) ETF (ATY): Seeks to capture inflation-protected real estate exposure (Dividend CAGR vs CPI CAGR).
  • Adelante Shares RE Growth(TM) ETF (AGV): Seeks to capture the fastest growing REIT companies based on FFO.
  • Adelante Shares RE Value(TM) ETF (AVU): Seeks to capture undervalued REITs.
  • Adelante Shares RE Composite(TM) ETF (ACB): Holds the largest 40 securities by market cap from each of the six indexes currently in the family.

Each ETF, excluding the Adelante Shares RE Composite ETF, holds 25 stocks, including REITs and REOCs (real estate operating companies). Each Index composition calculation is administered independently by Standard & Poor’s (S&P).

For more information, visit http://www.xsharesadvisors.com.

Deals & People September 28, 2007

Oppenheimer RK Program Added to Merrill Retirement Platform

Record(k)eeper Pro, OppenheimerFunds' retirement program for small- to mid-sized companies in the 401(k) marketplace, has been added to the MLConnect retirement platform at Merrill Lynch.
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Record(k)eeper Pro is a fully automated recordkeeping program that includes a comprehensive participant education program, according to an announcement from the retirement plans services division of OppenheimerFunds Distributor, Inc. (OFDI). The program provides recordkeeping services through FASCore, LLC.

The product offers a multi-manager investment program with options from OppenheimerFunds and other prominent fund families and a plan review program that includes a comprehensive report reviewing a plan’s statistics for a specified time period and comparing it to the industry average for similar plans.

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In addition, with Record(k)eeper Pro employers have access to the Plan Service Center, an online real time Web site providing paperless transaction processing and robust reporting capabilities.

“As part of the MLConnect platform, we are able to provide financial advisers greater flexibility and choice, offering unique features that can help meet the retirement plan needs of their clients,” said John Stoma, Senior Vice President and Director of Retirement Plans at OFDI, in the announcement.

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