Curian Launches Research Portfolio
Curian Capital LLC, a registered investment advisor providing a fee-based wealth management platform to financial professions, has created Curian Research Select Portfolios.
The new offering is designed to help advisors meet multiple client objectives while incorporating risk and inflation controls in a single account with one transparent asset-based fee. Curian's Research Select offering includes two sets of portfolios focusing on either asset accumulation or income distribution.
The accumulation portfolio focuses on saving money and offers both strategic and tactical asset allocation approaches. The income portfolios are designed for investors who are in the spending phase of their lives and offer three levels of income generation. The income portfolios also include an optional inflation control component.
Curian also is launching a new income-oriented investment strategy available within the Research Select portfolios or as a stand-alone strategy. The new strategy is designed to help investors guard against market volatility. It incorporates securities that can generate income from dividend payments. It uses a tactical asset allocation process to shift between a group of high-risk income-oriented investments and a lower-risk portfolio of high-quality, short-term Treasury investments.
Investors Capital Creates VIP Desk
Investors Capital Corp., Lynnfield, Mass., an independent broker-dealer, is creating a VIP Desk for its top registered representatives.
The VIP Desk will provide top producers with a single point of contact for all home-office related issues. The operations personnel will handle VIP requests regardless of the number of departments involved. They will handle business processing, business approval, technology, desktop support and training, compliance, licensing and advertising.
USAA Expands Mutual Fund Access
USAA Investment Management Co. is expanding access to 18 USAA equity and fixed-income mutual funds through Fidelity Investments' online platform.
The 18 funds will include fixed-income funds and the USAA Precious Metals and Minerals fund, a high performing mutual fund over the last decade. Individual investors also can continue to directly access USAA's full suite of mutual funds through www.usaa.com.
MFS Creates Global Funds
MFS Investment Management, Boston, is launching MFS Global Multi-Asset Fund and MFS Absolute Return Fund. The two new funds represent the latest additions to MFS' line of asset allocation funds and are designed to meet a growing demand from advisors for diversified, outcome-oriented, single-fund investment solutions.
The Multi-Asset Fund will mix asset classes such as global equities, real estate-related investments, and commodities. The Absolute Return Fund will seek to earn positive returns regardless of market conditions using individual security selection of primarily debt instruments and tactical asset allocation overlay to manage the fund's exposure to asset classes, markets and currencies.
Jackson Launches Portfolio Tool
Jackson National Life Insurance Co. is launching its new Portfolio Construction Tool, an interactive, online solution designed to help advisors build customized investment portfolios based on the individual objectives of their clients.
The new tool is being launched to aid advisors in researching and selecting investment options for each client's portfolio by aggregating historical performance information, subaccount analytics and educational materials on one platform. A variety of interactive filters will give advisors the ability to screen investment options by asset class, portfolio manager, investment style, expenses and performance.
Direxion Launches New ETFs
Direxion, a large issuer of 2x and 3x leveraged ETFs, is launching three 1x products offering daily inverse exposure to fixed-income benchmarks.
Total Bond Market Bear 1x Shares (SAGG) will seek to deliver returns that correspond to -100% of the daily change in the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, a basis for many bond ETFs.
Daily 7-10 Year Treasury Bear 1x Shares (TNS) is designed to deliver daily returns equal to -100% of the NYSE 7-10 Year Treasury Bond Index, a benchmark that includes the intermediate term debt of the U.S. government.
The third new product, Daily 20+ Year Treasury Bear 1x Shares (TYBS) is designed to deliver daily inverse exposure to the NYSE 20 Year Plus Treasury Bond Index, which is a benchmark that includes long-dated Treasurys.