Products July 20, 2012

Pacific View Asset Management Rolls Out with Two Funds

Condor Trading LP moved into asset management with the launch of a new venture, Pacific View Asset Management LLC in San Francisco.
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Pacific View is building a multi-strategy and multi-investment team platform that provides asset management services to institutional clients and investors around the world. Its first investment team is led by Kenneth Applegate, a small-cap portfolio manager, with two strategies, International Small Cap and Global Small Cap. 

Applegate will serve as senior portfolio manager and co-head of the Small Cap team, and will be joined by longtime colleague Scott Brown as the team’s portfolio manager and co-head.  Applegate and Brown had been working together at New Zealand’s Fisher Funds since 2007, where they managed that firm’s international small-cap strategies and portfolios. Each has nearly two decades of investment experience.

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Experienced international small-cap managers are in short supply and high demand, according to Applegate. “This is a terrific opportunity to leverage Condor Trading’s global institutional infrastructure and resources,” he said, adding that the platform is being built with an eye toward cross-continental awareness and local investing expertise.

Applegate has focused on small-cap investing throughout his career, which spans more than 17 years. In London, he co-managed a foreign exchange hedge fund portfolio for Refco. He later worked at RCM Global Investors as an assistant portfolio manager, and then at Berkeley Capital Management (formerly CapitalWorks Investment Partners) as lead portfolio manager of the Harlingwood Capital Management Small Cap Growth Fund until moving to New Zealand in 2007. He served as senior portfolio manager at Fisher Funds, where he launched and managed the firm’s international investment funds.

Scott Brown also has 17 years of investment experience. Brown started his career at RCM Global Investors, where he became co-manager of the PIMCO-RCM Global Small Cap Fund.  Later, he was a small-cap analyst for Falcon Point and then joined Fisher Funds in 2007, where he worked with Applegate to help launch and manage Fisher’s international funds.

Pacific View’s Small Cap team has two research analysts who have both been working with Applegate and Brown on the small-cap international funds they managed over the past couple of years.

 

Data & Research July 20, 2012

Cash Balance Plan Growth Outpacing Other Plan Designs

Kravitz’ 2012 National Cash Balance Research Report indicates a 21% annual increase in new cash balance plans, almost double the previous year's 11% growth rate.
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Cash balance plans continue to outpace all other sectors of the retirement plan market, including 401(k) plans, which showed a 1% decline in the same period.   

There were 7,064 cash balance plans active in 2010 (the most recent year for which IRS reporting data is available), up from 1,337 in 2001, representing 810% growth in under a decade. There are now 11.1 million participants in cash balance plans nationally, with $713 billion in total plan assets.   

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The stalled economy was no deterrent to adoption of new plans. Between 2008 and 2010, there was a 38% increase in new cash balance plans, despite the lingering recession and stalled recovery.   

Small businesses are driving cash balance growth: 84% of cash balance plans are in place at firms with fewer than 100 employees.   

“Business owners are increasingly choosing cash balance plans as a strategy to accelerate retirement savings, enhance employee benefits, and gain a buffer against market fluctuations,” said Dan Kravitz, president of Kravitz, a cash balance plan service provider. “IRS regulations released in October 2010 added flexibility for plan sponsors, so we expect this growth rate to continue accelerating.”  

The research also found companies more than double contributions to employee retirement savings when adding a cash balance plan. The average employer contribution to staff retirement accounts is 6% of pay in companies with both cash balance and 401(k) plans, compared with 2.3% of pay in firms with 401(k) alone.   

California and New York together account for 23% of all cash balance plans nationally, but the fastest growth in new plans has been in Florida, Texas and Michigan.   

The 2012 National Cash Balance Research Report is here.

 

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