Products November 22, 2011

Kingdom Trust Offering Custodial Services for Physical Precious Metals

Gold Bullion International (GBI) and The Kingdom Trust Company are collaborating on a physical precious metal alternative investment offering for financial advisers and investors.  
Reported by

Advisers will be able to buy, store and sell physical precious metals for their clients through Kingdom Trust, just as they would direct the purchase of equities or any other investment. According to GBI and Kingdom Trust, the demand for precious metals has grown over the last few years, yet there has not been an efficient or cost-effective solution for advisers to meet this interest.

GBI’s order-entry platform allows investors to trade physical metals as they would a stock or a bond through their existing order entry platform. Clients can choose to store metals at four different locations – New York, London, Salt Lake and Zurich. GBI acquires the metals from London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) approved dealers and arranges for delivery of the metals to the insured vault chosen by the investor. GBI also uses LBMA-approved partners to audit the holdings and provide valuations, utilizes an internationally recognized auditing firm to provide a 100% physical count of the holdings of each client, and provides a monthly statement of holdings and valuation to each investor.

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GBI chose Kingdom Trust as a custodian for these assets. As an independent, qualified custodian, The Kingdom Trust Company provides custodial accounts and retirement accounts to individual investors and qualified custodial services to the advisory space. “We are dedicated to providing alternative asset custody services to the investment industry… This allows [investors] to diversify their portfolios by utilizing alternative investments such as physical precious metals,” said Doug Lawson, President and CEO of The Kingdom Trust Company.

For more information, contact Gold Bullion International at 877-424-9507 for information on purchasing physical metals and The Kingdom Trust Company at 888-753-6972 for information on custodial accounts, individual retirement accounts and other qualified custody solutions.

Deals & People November 21, 2011

TIAA-CREF Asset Management Sees Executive Changes

TIAA-CREF's chief investment officer (CIO),  Ed Grzybowski, will be retiring; a search for his successor is under way.
Reported by

Grzybowski will remain in his current role until March 2012.  

In addition, TIAA-CREF made three new executive appointments in its asset management division. Carol Deckbar was named chief operating officer of TIAA-CREF Asset Management, a newly created position; on the investment team, David Brown was named portfolio manager of the TIAA General Account, also a new position and Lisa Black, currently serving as managing director, Global Public Markets, and head of public fixed-income portfolio management, will succeed Brown as senior managing director and head of Global Public Markets.  

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Deckbar will be responsible for the business activities of TIAA-CREF Asset Management including product management, business development, operations, technology, finance and marketing. She has been senior vice president of Investment Products at the firm for the past five years, responsible for a team of 40 professionals who develop and manage a wide range of investment products in equities, fixed income, real estate and alternatives. Deckbar will continue to report to Scott Evans, executive vice president of TIAA-CREF and president of Asset Management.  

Deckbar has 19 years of industry experience. Prior to joining TIAA-CREF in January 2007, she held various senior management positions in the asset management businesses of Bank of America and Wachovia.   

Brown will have responsibility for asset allocation within the $207 billion (9/30/11) General Account, as well as determining the risk-adjusted targets for assets in the General Account. He was previously senior managing director and head of Global Public Markets, responsible for overseeing all of the organization’s public fixed-income investments.  

Brown has 24 years of industry experience. He joined TIAA-CREF in 2005. Prior to serving as the head of Global Public Markets, he served as head of Global Private Markets, where he was responsible for all of the organization’s private fixed income, private equity and alternative investments.  

Black has 24 years of industry experience. She joined TIAA-CREF in 1987 as a corporate credit analyst. She moved on to assume other roles at the firm including head of public fixed income trading, and manager of the public market mortgage and asset-backed group. 

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