Products May 20, 2007

Harris Investment Mgt. Unveils Three Institutional Equity Products

Harris Investment Management is now offering institutional investors a long equity portfolio geared toward the microcap U.S. equity market, an international equity product, and a long/short equity product.
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The HIM MicroCap uses the Russell Microcap Index as its benchmark, which as of June 2006 had a capitalization range of approximately $70 million to $650 million.
“For institutional investors, investing in companies of this size presents several challenges, such as liquidity constraints, risk and investment horizon,” said Tom Lettenberger, who helped develop the model behind this product. “With this product, we have found a quantitative process that is quite effective in deciphering the universe and identifying stocks that outperform.”
The HIM International Equity product took off in March and uses a quantitative stock selection model to build the portfolio, and the HIM International Equity Investment Process ranks stocks using fundamental, valuation and investor interest factors.
The HIM 130/30 combines a traditional long equity portfolio with a long/short portfolio composed of 30% leveraged exposure on the long side by selling short 30% of portfolio assets. According to Harris, this method allows moderate shorting to better reflect negative views on stocks that are expected to underperform and to use the short proceeds to further fund overweight stocks that are expected to outperform.
Data & Research May 20, 2007

Retirement Will Include Part-time Work

Nearly three-quarters of workers say they plan to continue working on a part-time basis after retirement; 21% say that part-time work will be a major source of retirement income and 52% say it will be a minor source.
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According to The Gallup Personal Finance poll, this is a far greater number than the 22% of current retirees that now rely on part-time income.
The Gallup data adds to the mounting evidence that individuals no longer see retirement as a definitive point in which they leave the workforce. Barely half (53%) of those still in the workforce expect to have enough money to live comfortably in retirement and four in 10 say they doubt they will have enough, according to the company.
One reason that non-retirees fear they will not be financially prepared for retirement is because of the precarious state of the Social Security system. More than half of current retirees cite Social Security as a major source of income, compared to 27% of non-retirees who foresee the system as a major income source.
Far more non-retirees than retirees plan to rely on 401(k), IRA, Keogh or other retirement savings accounts as a source of income in retirement, with 81% of non-retirees citing this as a source of income, compared to only 51% of current retirees.
According to the poll, the average age at which current retirees stopped working is 60; however, nearly 70% of current retires retired before turning 65, while only 27% retired at 65 or older. The average age at which the nation’s pre-retirees expect to retire is 64. A majority (57%) of non- retirees say they will retire at 65 or older.
Results from the full Gallup poll are available here.

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