Products February 18, 2010

RothProfessional.com Aims to Help Advisers Spot Roth Conversion Opportunity

Archimedes Systems, Inc., and Convergent Retirement Plan Solutions LLC announced the launch of RothProfessional.com, a Web portal to aid advisers with Roth individual retirement account (IRA) conversions.
Reported by

The firms said the Web site provides financial advisers access to the Roth Conversion Optimizer and a library of source documents related to the pertinent laws, regulations, and rulings concerning Roth IRA conversions and the 2010 Roth IRA conversion changes. The Roth Conversion Optimizer allows advisers to model 10 different conversion scenarios simultaneously to help clients select a potentially optimal level of Roth IRA conversion based on a variety of user inputs (see “Web-Based Tool Helps Advisers Perform Roth Conversion Analyses”).

Key resources within RothProfessional.com include the Roth Conversion Optimizer, a series of short Roth educational video clips, a comprehensive Roth reference library, and frequently asked questions, according to the companies.

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Products February 18, 2010

Van Eck Releases Egypt ETF

New York-based asset manager Van Eck Global has launched the Market Vectors Egypt Index ETF on NYSE Arca.
Reported by

An announcement said the new offering is the first U.S.-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) to provide focused exposure to Egypt’s economy.

The ETF seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Market Vectors Egypt Index (MVEGPTTR), the company said. The index provides a means to track the overall performance of companies that are domiciled and primarily listed in Egypt, or that generate a majority of their revenues in the country.

As of January 31, the Egypt Index included 28 securities; the top three index holdings were Commercial International Bank, Orascom Construction Industries, and Orascom Telecom Holding SAE (8.5%, 8.4%, 7.9% of the Index, respectively). Sectors with a greater than 10% weighting as of January 31 included Financials, Telecommunication Services, Industrials, and Materials.

The index is calculated using a market-capitalization weighting methodology, and is float-adjusted and modified so that the weight of any single component does not account for more than 8% of the total capitalization at a rebalancing date. It is denominated in U.S. dollars and reviewed quarterly.

“The Market Vectors Egypt Index ETF addresses a growing interest in using individual country funds to calibrate international equity allocations, particularly on the part of investors dissatisfied with existing indices,” said Jan van Eck, principal at Van Eck Global, in the announcement. “These funds serve as targeted tools for overweighting or underweighting specific geographies and economies.”

More information is available here.

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