Seven New Index-Based SRI Portfolios Launched

Progressive Asset Management (PAM) announced the launch of "Progressive Track Investments" (PTI), a suite of investment products that are both socially screened and track existing benchmark indices for most major asset classes.

Progressive Asset Management (PAM) announced the launch of “Progressive Track Investments’ (PTI), a suite of investment products that are both socially screened and track existing benchmark indices for most major asset classes.

According to a press release, the seven portfolios are screened on social and environmental grounds by PAM and then optimized by Aperio Group to replicate index benchmark performance. Each PTI portfolio may hold up to 150 individual securities.

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The seven new benchmark-tracking portfolios by asset class and benchmark are:

• large-cap growth (S&P/Citigroup 500 Growth Index);
• large-cap value (S&P/Citigroup 500 Value Index);
• mid-cap growth (S&P/Citigroup 400 Growth Index);
• mid-cap value (S&P/Citigroup 400 Value Index);
• small-cap growth (S&P/Citigroup 600 Growth Index);
• small-cap value (S&P/Citigroup 600 Value Index); and
• international (MSCI EAFE Index).

“Advisors can use Progressive Track Investments to diversify their clients’ SRI portfolios among underserved asset classes (such as small cap or international) or to create broadly diversified SRI portfolios from scratch.” PAM Director of Business Development Phil Kirshman, said in the press release.

For what was described as an “all-inclusive advisory fee’, registered investment advisers are free to choose among the PTI portfolios in any combination for their clients. An account can hold one portfolio or any combination of more than one portfolio — up to and including all seven.

PTI accounts may be held at FOLIOfn, and since the portfolios are held in separate accounts, PTI provides advisers and their clients an opportunity to vote share proxies to support their values. FOLIOfn offers an online proxy voting tool for convenience.

More information can be found at www.ProgressiveAssetManagement.com.

DST Adds Auto Services to RK Platform

DST Systems, a Kansas City, Missouri-based recordkeeping services provider, is adding automatic investment selection and automatic deferral to its existing automatic enrollment capabilities.

DST Systems, a Kansas City, Missouri-based recordkeeping services provider, is adding automatic investment selection and automatic deferral to its existing automatic enrollment capabilities.

By year-end, TRAC AutoVantage from DST Systems, Inc., will enable plan sponsors to auto-enroll participants in their defined contribution plans, as well as provide automatic investment selection and automatic deferral increase.

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DST’s TRAC retirement recordkeeping platform has supported automatic enrollment of plan participants since 2001, but the new auto-investment selection functionality will complement auto-enrollment by making actively managed lifecycle/target maturity funds available as default options for plan participants, while a new auto-deferral increase capability will enable automatic annual percentage increases in participant pre-tax contributions until the participant reaches a plan-specified salary deferral rate.

“Automatic enrollment by itself is not enough,” said Jim Walsh, vice president DST Systems, in the news release. “It is critical that the auto-default investment provided by the plan sponsor is appropriate for the participant, and that the automated solution actively builds savings.”

Both the Pension Protection Act of 2006 and recent Department of Labor regulations have specifically referenced, and in some ways sanctioned, the adoption of automatic enrollment, contribution acceleration and default investment fund choices.

More information on the company is at http://www.dstsystems.com/.

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