Deals & People July 11, 2008

Merrill Reshuffles Retirement Group

Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management announced organizational changes and leadership appointments in its Retirement Group.
Reported by

After a few months in his new position, Stephen Bodurtha, senior vice president and head of the Retirement Group, has announced new positions and noted a strategy for retaining clients and meeting industry changes (see Falcon Leaving Retirement Group at Merrill Lynch). He announced the following changes in an internal memo:

Kevin Crain, managing director, will lead the Institutional Client Relationship Team, responsible for small to large plans, alongside Bodurtha. “Our goal is to grow the firm’s market share by attracting new institutional plan sponsor clients, and by delivering even more services to existing clients,” the memo said.

Want the latest retirement plan adviser news and insights? Sign up for PLANADVISER newsletters.

Aimee DeCamillo, managing director, will head the Individual Participant and Investor Solutions. The memo said the firm is striving to provide participants with more opportunities to become the next generation of wealth management clients.

John Furlong, managing director, will lead Institutional Benefit Plan Solutions, including the firm’s defined contribution, defined benefit, equity, and deferred compensation services, as well as plans administered by third-party firms.

Barry Lindenbaum, managing director, COO of the Retirement Group, will lead the operations, services, and technology effort.

Director Kabir Sethi will head Strategic Business Initiatives, which will help keep the firm up to pace with industry change, according to the memo. The group will have impact on a wide range of activities, including third-party and vendor relationships.

The memo notes a few unchanged positions: George Rinehart, first vice president, will continue to head the group’s Human Resources, Lou Almerini, first vice president, will head Finance, and Mike Sjogren, managing director, will continue to work with us from Merrill’s Office of General Counsel (OGC).

Merrill Lynch confirmed the announcements but offered no further comment.

Products July 11, 2008

Dow Jones Unveils Africa Index

Dow Jones Indexes has launched the Dow Jones Africa Titans 50 Index, a pan-African benchmark that measures the stock performance of 50 companies that are headquartered in, or generate the majority of their revenues in, Africa.
Reported by

A Dow Jones news release said the offering allows market participants to have either direct or indirect exposure to markets in Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zambia.

The index has been licensed to Van Eck Global, a provider of global investment products, to serve as the basis for an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that will be available July 14 at the New York Stock Exchange.

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANADVISER newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan adviser news.

“The methodology behind the Dow Jones Africa Titans 50 Index provides a balanced reflection of the African markets,” said Michael A. Petronella, president, Dow Jones Indexes, in the announcement. “It was important for us to develop an investable index that gives true exposure to the African region and is open to all African countries that qualify for it.”

The Dow Jones Africa Titans 50 Index is weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization. Each country’s weight is capped at 25% and weights of individual components are capped at 8% with a maximum of 15 companies per country. For inclusion in the index, companies must have a minimum market capitalization of $200 million and a minimum three-month average daily trading volume of $1 million, the announcement said.

The three biggest sectors represented in the index are Basic Resources, Banking, and Oil & Gas, according to the super sector classification breakdown.

More information is available at www.djindexes.com.

«