Calvert Foundation Launches Community Fund
The Calvert Foundation, partnering with global financial services giant Citi and with the Opportunity Finance Network, has launched the Communities at Work Fund, which will invest $200 million in small business lending throughout the U.S. to low-wealth and low-income communities.
The fund will offer financing to not-for-profit and for-profit community development financial institution loan funds that will then lend to local businesses in low-income communities. The fund is designed to help sustain and grow U.S. businesses, drive job creation and contribute to the economic recovery of communities that are underserved by traditional financial institutions. The fund will provide liquidity for community development projects.
The Calvert Foundation manages money from investors who want to help the community while earning a financial return on their investments. Additional information can be found at www.calvertfoundation.org. The Opportunity Finance Network is made up of 160 private financial institutions. Additional information can be found at www.opportunityfinance.net. Additional information on Citi can be found at www.Citigroup.com or www.Citi.com.
Jefferson National Adds New Investments
Jefferson National's Monument Advisor, one of the first flat insurance fee variable annuities, is adding more than 40 new investment options from four fund families: ProFunds, Rydex, Eaton Vance and the Merger Fund.
The alternatives are designed to provide innovative investment options to help ensure advisors have the choices they need to manage a challenging market.
Fidelity Launches Corporate Bond Fund
Designed to fulfill the needs of investors and advisors who want targeted exposure to the corporate sector, Fidelity Investments is creating the Fidelity Corporate Bond Fund, which includes both retail and advisor shares.
The new fund will invest at least 80% of its assets in investment-grade corporate bonds and other corporate debt securities and repurchase agreements for those securities. Its bogey is the Barclays Capital Credit Bond Index, a market-value-weighted index of investment-grade, corporate fixed-rate issues with maturities of one year or more.
Nuveen Offers Diversified Fund
In April, Nuveen Investments launched the Nuveen Symphony Credit Opportunities Fund, the first mutual fund to leverage Symphony Asset Management's bottom-up credit analysis. Symphony looks across the capital structure of leveraged companies to capture risk-adjusted returns. The fund will invest in debt instruments such as bonds, loans and convertible securities that may be rated below investment-grade. The fund may also use derivatives to gain investment exposure.
Study Validates Options Use
A recent Harris Study for the Options Industry Council shows options users still make good clients for advisors.
The study shows options users are better educated and more affluent than investors who do not use options. It also shows options users tend to be more open to new ideas, although that gap is closing. In the 2010 survey, 81% of options users said they are always interested in looking at new investment vehicles, compared to 78% of non-options users. The spread was 84% to 75% five years ago.