Hot Off the Presses

Plan Sponsor & Participant Tools

The Online 401(k) now offers an automatic enrollment feature. The feature, available with The Online 401(k)’s Blue Chip option, compels employees to at least contemplate saving for retirement even if they do not choose to participate. Employees are presented with three choices: contribute to the plan at the automatic rate using the automatic default investments, opt to contribute to the plan at a self-selected rate and self-selected investments, or opt out altogether.

AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co. has launched a new distribution channel, Corporate Markets, focused on providing retirement plan strategies and solutions for Fortune 1000 corporations and their employees. The channel provides employers with resources to help their employees: offering education, ongoing support, and guaranteed income solutions to individuals as they accumulate retirement assets in their 401(k) plans and transition to the distribution phase at retirement. Corporate Markets is run by Executive Vice President Bill McDermott, who joined AXA Equitable in September after spending 11 years with Fidelity Investments.

Newton, Massachusetts-based registered investment adviser I-Pension LLC is open for business, providing personalized investment advice for what it calls “the largely ignored group of middle-class Americans.’ I-Pension says clients can receive comprehensive money management services for as little as $0.50 a day for 401(k) accounts.

Kravitz, in conjunction with Kravitz Davis Sansone (KDS), the registered investment adviser arm of the Kravitz team, has released the Kravitz Cash Balance Maturity Portfolios, a new series of portfolios developed exclusively for cash balance plans. The Kravitz Cash Balance Maturity Portfolios offer an exposure to as many as 17 separate asset classes and 21 mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Adviser Tools

Fidelity has made a number of changes to its Adviser 401(k) platform, adopting a custom pricing model where price is determined by individual plan parameters such as plan size, number of participants, number of eligible participants, plan services, and the selection of investment options; eliminating the proprietary fund requirement; and consolidating the two Fidelity Advisor 401(k) offerings.

Investment Benchmarking

Credit Suisse/Tremont has redesigned its Web site, which highlights the new AllHedge Index and is easier to navigate than the previous site, according to the firm. The Research section, one of the most popular areas of the site, is now accessible directly from the home page, and the site continues to provide additional current and historical data, including comparisons with other global indexes.

Dow Jones Indexes and Muscat Securities Market, the stock exchange in Oman, have launched the Dow Jones MSM Index, a total-market index that measures the performance of all companies listed on the Muscat Securities Market. The index currently includes 66 stocks.

Standard & Poor’s has launched the S&P 500 Inverse Index, designed to provide investors with the inverse performance of the S&P 500. S&P explained that when investors hold a short position in a security, they must pay dividends and interest for borrowed stock. The return of the S&P 500 Index has an inverse relationship with the total return of the S&P 500, which includes both dividends and price movements.

Dow Jones Indexes and Dharma Investments, a private investment firm pioneering the development of faith-based investment, have come together to create the Dow Jones Dharma Indexes. The new indexes measure the performance of companies selected according to the value systems and principles of Dharmic religions, especially Hinduism and Buddhism.

IW Financial has created two new investment indexes designed to address the needs of the faith-based investment community: the IWF Conservative Christian Values Index, which the firm says is the first index designed to capture broad market investment returns without compromising the values important to conservative Christians, and the IWF Catholic Values Index, a benchmark proxy for the broad market comprised of companies that closely match the values defined in the Catholic Bishops’ Guidelines.

Standard & Poor’s has launched a new investable index for investors seeking exposure to environmentally responsible investment strategies. The S&P Global Eco Index provides diversified, liquid exposure to 30 of the largest publicly listed companies operating in ecology-related industries, covering 12 countries at launch with an adjusted market capitalization of $376.87 billion

Dow Jones Indexes and Wilshire Associates have announced that Bahrain, Kuwait, and Sri Lanka will be added to the Dow Jones Wilshire Global index family. The inclusion of these three countries in the Dow Jones Wilshire Global index family increases the total number of countries in the index suite to 61.

Mutual Funds

In January, Fidelity Investments reopened its well-known Magellan Fund to new investors for the first time in a decade. The company made the move to generate new sales to offset redemptions from retiring Baby Boomers starting to tap into their retirement nest eggs. Some 85% of the fund’s assets are earmarked for retirement, Fidelity said.

Diamond Portfolio Advisors, LLC, an institutional money manager, has launched a mutual fund based on its track record in managing high-quality growth stocks. The Quality Growth Fund is the first in a series of funds to mirror the firm’s growth strategies under the Diamond Portfolio Investment Trust. The firm’s investment strategy layers an analysis of corporate culture on top of quantitative screening focusing on companies with consistent double-digit growth prospects.

Federated Investors, Inc., has launched Federated Kaufmann Large Cap Fund, an equity fund that seeks to provide capital appreciation by investing in the securities of large companies in the United States and abroad. The fund is managed by Lawrence E. Auriana and Hans P. Utsch, who have guided the Federated Kaufmann team of six managers and seven analysts for more than 20 years.

AGF Funds Inc. has introduced three new quantitative funds—the AGF Canadian All Cap Equity Fund, the AGF Global High Income Fund, and the AGF Global Balanced High Income Fund—into its retail lineup that will be managed by Highstreet Asset Management Inc., a subsidiary of AGF Management Limited.

SBAuer Funds has announced the launch of the Auer Growth Fund (AUERX), which looks for stocks poised to double in value within a year. Father and son team Bryan and Robert Auer plan to manage the fund actively, anticipating turnover of 200% or an average holding time of six months.

Vanguard announced that Oliver E. Buckley, Chief Investment Officer and Executive Vice President at Franklin Portfolio Associates, LLC, joined the portfolio management teams of Vanguard Growth and Income Fund and Vanguard Morgan Growth Fund at the end of January. Buckley, 54, will serve as co-manager of the two funds with John S. Cone, President, CEO, and Chairman of Franklin, who has managed the $7.8 billion Growth and Income Fund and the Franklin portion of the $9.4 billion Morgan Growth Fund since 1999. Buckley will assume the lead manager position of the two funds in July 2008, at which time Cone will relinquish portfolio management responsibilities.

CI Investments Inc. launched the Cambridge Funds, a new family of mutual funds under the direction of Portfolio Manager Alan Radlo. Radlo is Chief Investment Officer of the Cambridge Funds team and is Lead Portfolio Manager of Cambridge Canadian Equity Corporate Class, Cambridge Canadian Asset Allocation Corporate Class, and Cambridge Global Equity Corporate Class.

Deals

Private-label recordkeeper ExpertPlan has linked up with five more payroll firms, providing each firm with its own fully branded 401(k) product. The payroll companies signing up are: Payroll Computing Services (Freeport, New York), Payroll Dynamics (Hauppauge, New York), Payroll Link (Rancho Cucamonga, California), Pinnacle Business Services (Monterey, California), and Southland Data Processing (Upland, California).

Ascensus (formerly BISYS Retirement Services) has been selected by SEI to provide recordkeeping and administrative services for its retirement plans. In addition, SEI will have access to Ascensus’ suite of participant education tools, including onsite enrollment meetings with multilingual capabilities, personalized enrollment materials, customized targeted communications, and (k)ruiseControl, its auto-enrollment and deferral increase program.

Franklin Portfolio Associates, one of the asset management boutiques within The Bank of New York Mellon, has announced that Oliver Buckley will become its chief executive officer later this year. Buckley, who has been Chief Investment Officer since January 2006, will succeed John Cone, who will remain Chairman of the Board of Franklin Portfolio. Buckley will retain his CIO role and continue to devote most of his time to managing the investment teams and research efforts at Franklin Portfolio. Paul F. Healey will become President and Chief Operating Officer and will oversee client and consulting relationships, sales, operations, and non-investment aspects of the business.

MassMutual Financial Group has announced that Executive Vice President Elaine Sarsynski—currently Chairman, President, and CEO of MassMutual International LLC—will assume additional responsibilities as head of the Retirement Services Division. The appointment comes as Executive Vice President Fred Castellani, Retirement Services, has announced that he will retire at the end of February.

The board of directors of PMFM, Inc., an Athens, Georgia-based registered investment adviser, has tapped Judson P. Doherty as President. The company said Doherty is responsible for all operations of the firm, including oversight of its investment department and sales and marketing initiatives, as well as the delivery of PMFM’s 401k Toolbox service. Doherty, who also serves as Chief Financial Officer, has been with PMFM since 2001.

JPMorgan Funds, the U.S. mutual fund business of JPMorgan Asset Management, says that David Kelly, PhD, formerly Economic Advisor for Putnam Investments in Boston, will become its Chief Market Strategist based in New York.

Harry W. Segalas, David A. Altman, Barton H. Buxbaum, and Gregory A. Nejmeh have launched Agility Asset Management, LLC, an independent, employee-owned investment management firm. Agility invests in approximately 25 primarily large-cap quality growth businesses on a fully discretionary basis for institutions and ultra-high-net-worth individuals.

Dwight Asset Management, an institutional fixed-income manager and member firm of Old Mutual Asset Management, has named David J. Thompson, CFA, as President. Thompson assumes the title from Laura P. Dagan, CFA, who has retained her roles as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. Thompson will continue to act as Co-Chief Investment Officer and remain on the Board of Directors.

FundQuest, a global provider of managed account investment solutions for financial institutions and advisers, has hired Leslie Prescott as Director of Retirement Management Solutions. Prescott, who joins the firm from Fidelity Investments, will lead the development of FundQuest’s retirement platform offering, which is currently available to more than 2,000 advisers.

Financial-services market research firm DALBAR Inc. is launching Compliance Support Services (CSS), a new division whose mission is to lower business risk and the cost of compliance review and monitoring through industrywide standardization, collaboration, and tools. CSS will be led by Bruce Long, who recently retired as President of Guardian Insurance and Annuity Company, and Lou Harvey, CEO of DALBAR.

Raleigh, North Carolina-based CAPTRUST Financial Advisors announced that two financial services veterans have joined the firm. Dave Liebrock, formerly Executive Vice President, Retirement, at Fidelity Investments Institutional Services, Co., is now CAPTRUST’s Senior Vice President in Boston. Beryl Ball has joined CAPTRUST’s Richmond, Virginia, office; Ball was most recently Senior Vice President of Retirement Services, Mid-Atlantic Region, at SunTrust Banks, Inc.

ETFs

OneChicago, LLC, the all-electronic exchange for trading Single Stock Futures (SSFs), a synthetic stock lending and financing tool, has launched the trading of SSFs on the exchange-traded funds (ETFs) of PowerShares QQQ and the iShares Russell 2000. These listings will add to OneChicago’s growing roster of SSFs on ETFs, which includes the DIAMONDS Trust Series 1 and the Sector Select SPDR Fund.

Pershing LLC, a subsidiary of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, has launched an Exchange-Traded Funds Center to provide its introducing broker/dealer and independent registered investment advisers (RIAs) with a centralized ETF information source. The site has detailed information on nearly 600 ETFs with profiles of each fund. The profiles include insight into performance, holdings, news, and expense information.