Products June 1, 2007

Calvert Launches International Fund

Socially responsible mutual fund firm Calvert has launched a new fund that seeks long term capital appreciation by investing primarily in non-U.S. small-cap and mid-cap stocks both in the developed countries and emerging markets.
Reported by
According to a press release from Calvert, the investment strategy for the Calvert International Opportunities Fund begins with a top-down macro economic and strategic overview of the global economy and its regional impact, including emerging markets, to establish a desired asset allocation and determine target sector weightings.
London-based F&C Management, the sub-adviser, primarily uses bottom-up research analyzing the outlook for any particular stock being considered to uncover information or derive conclusions that are not known to the wider marketplace.
According to the press release, the fund primarily invests in the common stocks of non-U.S. small- and mid-cap companies, whose market capitalization is within the range of the Citigroup/S&P World EX-U.S. EMI Index, which was $500 million to $20 to $30 billion as of December 31, 2006.
The fund has an investment ceiling of 20% in emerging markets.
For more information visit http://www.calvert.com.
Products June 1, 2007

New York Life Program Helps Employers Tailor Retirement Planning

New York Life Investment Management’s retirement plan services division has come out with a program to help employers better understand workers’ retirement planning behavior by categorizing plan participants into six segments.
Reported by
According to a press release from the company, the program uses various behavioral, attitudinal and demographic factors to group retirement plan participants into six categories so that employers can tailor their services to participants’ different needs.
One of the six segments include lower-paid participants who are juggling financial priorities, in which case the employer might have to focus on basic 401(k) education concepts as well as offering such “do-it-for-you” tools as managed accounts, which essentially do the investing and saving for the participant, the news release said. Another might include a plan that has a low participation rate, in which case auto enrollment might work best.
The program is based on a similar tactic that retailers use to understand what a customer is likely to want or need in the future. New York Life uses similar behavioral and preference information – derived from sources such as Web interaction, participant data and its own recordkeeping system – along with plan and demographic data, to define personalized participant educational programs.
For more information, visit www.nylim.com.

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