The Markets October 29, 2007

S&P Introduces Three More Shariah-Compliant Indexes

Standard&Poor’s has launched three more Shariah-compliant indexes: the S&P Global Infrastructure Shariah, the S&P Global Healthcare Shariah, and the S&P /IFCI Large-MidCap Shariah.
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According to a press release, the three new indexes are:

  • The S&P Global Infrastructure Shariah, which is meant to provide liquid and tradable exposure to 20 companies from around the world that represent the listed infrastructure universe while adopting explicit selection criteria defined by Islamic law. The group of investments is drawn from the S&P Global Infrastructure Index and has three distinct infrastructure clusters: energy, transportation, and utilities.
  • The S&P Global Healthcare Shariah that is comprised of companies in the S&P 500, S&P Europe 350, and S&P Japan 500 Shariah-compliant indexes sit in the GICS Health Care sector – which included 72 companies as of the end of September.
  • The S&P/IFCI Large-MidCap Shariah currently includes stocks from the following emerging market countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Turkey. S&P also added five country indexes, including Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia, which are part of the S&P/IFCG emerging market series.

All S&P Shariah indexes are screened by Ratings Intelligence Partners, a Kuwait-based consulting company specializing in the Islamic investment market.

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For more information, visit www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

Products October 29, 2007

Schwab Offers New Trust Services for RIAs

Schwab Institutional, a provider of custodial, operational, and trading support for independent investment advisors, has announced new services designed to help advisers retain the management of trust assets.
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Schwab’s new custom-built Personal Trust Reporting Service enables advisers to offer a fully integrated trust accounting and trading platform for their clients who act as trustees, providing:
  • Principal and income reporting and trust accounting;
  • Separate, periodic trust reports;
  • Tax lot accounting;
  • Scheduled payment to beneficiaries (calculated and fixed);
  • Recordkeeping for personal tangible property owned by the trust, not held by Schwab Institutional; and
  • Tax worksheet creation and optional tax preparation.
“By providing individual trustees with complex accounting, recordkeeping, and reporting for trust accounts, we are helping advisers win and retain assets even as they are transferred from generation to generation,” said Cathy Clauson, vice president of Schwab Institutional, in a company announcement.
For advisers who wish to work with Schwab as a corporate or directed trustee, the new Administrative Trustee Service enables them to focus on investment management while Schwab Bank handles the administrative fiduciary duties of the trust. The fully integrated trust accounting and trading platform offers:
  • Favorable trust status;
  • Principal and income distributions;
  • Accounting and recordkeeping; and
  • Preparation and filing of federal and state taxes and distribution of K-1s to beneficiaries.
Charles Schwab Bank Personal Trust will be a division of Charles Schwab Bank and is pending regulatory approval, the announcement said.
More about Schwab Institutional is at www.schwabinstitutional.com.

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