Products April 11, 2007

Nationwide Offers New Products for 457 Plans

Nationwide Retirement Solutions (NRS) has launched managed account and guaranteed balance products available to participants in NRS administered 457 plans.
Reported by
Nationwide Investment Advisors, LLC has retained Wilshire Associates as the independent financial expert to select and monitor investments so that participants in the new ProAccount program do not have to. The ProAccount program will create an investment strategy that seeks to enhance diversification, increase returns and control risk based on a participant’s personal profile, age and risk tolerance, according to an NRS announcement.
Nationwide is also making the new FundGuard product available to its 457 plans. This new feature protects a participant’s account so no matter what happens to the market, their initial investment is protected; and at the same time, their investments have the opportunity to grow, the news release said.
For example, a participant who has a principal balance of $30,000 in their 457 plan can choose a five-, seven- or ten-year term of guarantee.
At the end of the elected term, FundGuard will make sure that if the stock market does well, the participant keeps the gains or if the account value is lower at the end of the term, FundGuard makes up for the loss by applying a credit to the account, returning it to its initial $30,000 balance.
For more information, call 877-677-3678.
The Markets April 10, 2007

March Sees $9B Growth in ETFs

Twenty-two new exchange-traded funds (ETFs) launched in March and total assets of U.S. ETFs increased by $9 billion, according to State Street Global Advisors.
Reported by
According to March figures, ETF assets have increased from about $350 billion in March 2006 to $450 billion at the same point this year and up from a little more than $100 billion in 2002.
International, sector, specialty and size ETFs had considerable asset growth, respectively gaining $3.08 billion, $1.6 billion, $1.3 billion, and $1.04 billion for the month.
Large Cap ETF assets grew by $1.6 billion, followed by Growth ETFs ($443 million), and Value ETFs ($133 million). By sector, Energy, Utilities and Financials had the greatest gains during March.
The report showed that at the end of March, 454 ETFs were managed by 16 ETF managers, with assets that totaled $440 billion. Barclays Global Investors led the ranking of managers with $257 billion in assets in 130 ETFs, followed by:
  • State Street: $103 billion in 51 ETFs,
  • Vanguard: $27 billion in 28 ETFs,
  • The Bank of New York: $26.5 billion in six ETFs,
  • Powershares: $10 billion in 73 ETFs, and
  • Rydex Global Advisors: $4.5 billion in 25 ETFs.
The top three US ETFs in terms of assets, as of March 31, 2007, were the S&P 500 SPDR ($61.4 billion), iShares MSCI EAFE ($41.2 billion) and the iShares S&P 500 ETF ($18.7 billion).
The average daily volume for all U.S.-listed ETFs was $42 billion, which represents roughly 10% of the total value of the U.S. ETF market. The top three U.S. ETFs in terms of dollar volume traded for the month were the S&P 500 SPDR, iShares Russell 2000 Index Fund and the NASDAQ-100 Index Tracking Stock.
The full results can be downloaded at http://www.ssgafunds.com/etf/index.jsp with free registration.

«