The Markets January 19, 2010

Global Fund Flows Reach 2007 Level

Progress in November helped bring year-to-date net flows worldwide to $825 billion—reaching full-year gains made in 2007, according to data from Strategic Insight (SI), an Asset International company.
Reported by

During the month of November, investors deposited $100 billion net globally into equity/mixed, bond and other long-term mutual funds, SI said in an announcement. Fixed-income products continued to dominate and accounted for two-thirds of the total year-to-date contributions, mostly driven by U.S. investors switching to higher-yielding investments (see “Bond Funds See Record Inflows in 2009”).

SI’s Global FlowWatch shows stock funds also attracted net new commitments of $225 billion through November 2009, according to the announcement.

Money-market programs experienced net redemptions in all regions except for Asia during this period, totaling $590 billion of outflows worldwide.

The full report is available to registered users at www.sionline.com.

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Products January 19, 2010

ProTracker Releases Cloud CRM Software for Financial Advisers

ProTracker Software, Inc., announced the launch of ProTracker Cloud, a hosted remote client relationship management (CRM) solution.
Reported by

ProTracker Cloud builds on the firm’s ProTracker Advantage product, a practice management program, by providing a hosted solution including the ProTracker Advantage CRM, Microsoft Office 2007 (MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint), and Microsoft Outlook. The solution is accessible through a Web browser, according to the firm.

The solution uses a two-factor authentication for security purposes. Advisers will be asked for a username and strong password, as well as a physical security key similar to a car door clicker. The firm said the offering provides maintenance and updates with nightly data backups and technical support.

With the hosted Microsoft Exchange Server option, ProTracker Cloud supports personal digital assistants (PDAs) and smart phones, such as a Blackberry, iPhone, Palm Treo, or Windows mobile device.

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