Products January 27, 2009

Hartford Rolls out Application for SMART529 Accounts

The Hartford is launching an electronic application process for its SMART529 accounts.
Reported by

SMART529 are offered by the West Virginia Prepaid Tuition and College Savings Program Board of Trustees and administered by Hartford Life Insurance Company. According to a release, the electronic application is based on National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC) technology, which the firm uses for its mutual fund business.

The product also includes technology to provide online education for advisers, plus resources for them to help build their businesses, The Hartford said. In addition, The Hartford SMART529 Plan has opened up a 529 share class to serve registered investment advisers (RIAs) who have firm selling agreements for The Hartford SMART529 plan.

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The Hartford said that in light of demand to go paperless from broker/dealer firms, it has responded by rolling out a streamlined application. The paperless tool is available for broker/dealer firms that have an NSCC agreement with The Hartford.

Deals & People January 27, 2009

FTSE Acquires Qualitative Analysis Business to Bolster Support for New Indexes

The FTSE Group has completed the acquisition of Pensions Benchmark Corporation (PBC), a U.S.-based quantitative analysis business.
Reported by

According to a FTSE news release, PBC owner Tom Nadbielny joins FTSE as Quantitative Research Director and will head the organization’s three regional research teams based in London, New York, and Hong Kong.

The announcement said FTSE will integrate PBC’s systems and database within its own operational framework.

The news release said PBC will bolster FTSE’s ability to support clients’ use of its indexes, create new customized indexes, and provide a range of performance and risk analysis.

“Index users are seeking increasingly sophisticated indexing tools and associated data services. The acquisition of PBC and appointment of Tom Nadbielny strengthens our capability to meet that demand and ensure FTSE remains an innovative and market-leading index provider,” said Mark Makepeace, Chief Executive, FTSE Group in the announcement.

More information is available at www.ftse.com.

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