Gemini Fund Launches Series Trust
Gemini Fund Services LLC, a subsidiary of NorthStar Financial Services Group LLC, has launched its second series trust, the Northern Lights Fund Trust.
Gemini‚s first series trust, The AdvisorOne Trust, has grown to 13 funds and approximately $800 million in assets over the last few years.
"We allow our clients to concentrate on what they do best–managing money and focusing on shareholder returns, not administering a fund company," says Gemini Fund Services President Andrew Rogers. "A series trust also reduces fund operating expenses thereby improving returns to shareholders as the trust gives us the leverage to negotiate economies of scale that could not be achieved on an individual basis."
RIAs are able to form a mutual fund in the shared trust and existing funds can enter the trust if shareholders approve. Advisors are able to enter the shared trust if they can raise assets, have an investment strategy and a reasonable fee structure that benefits shareholders. A model prospect would be an advisor that manages several hundred million and has many relatively small accounts. The advisor can utilize the mutual fund to pool smaller accounts and provide portfolio management.
Since its inception more than 20 years ago, Hauppauge, N.Y.-based Gemini has launched more than 75 fund families. Visit www.geminifund.com or www.mfcomplianceservices.com for more information.

Equal-Weight Sector ETFs Launched
Rydex Investments has launched a family of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on the S&P Equal Weight Sector Indices. The nine equal-weight sector ETFs, trading on the American Stock Exchange, divide stocks equally regardless of market capitalization.
Rydex uses equal weighting to help avoid single-stock risk, provide more exposure to smaller sector stocks and potentially enable the new ETFs to outperform cap-weighted peers.
For more information visit www.rydexinvestments.com.
 
Index Based On Intellectual Property
Ocean Tomo, a provider of diversified intellectual property-related services, has launched the Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index (Amex: OTPAT), the first equity index based on the value of corporate intellectual property.
The Index represents a diversified portfolio of 300 companies that own the most valuable patents relative to their book value. The full list of companies in the Index and other materials are available at www.OceanTomoIndexes.com.

ExpertPlan Launches Enhanced Auto-Enrollment Technology
ExpertPlan Inc., a provider of private-labeled retirement solutions, has introduced an enhanced auto-enrollment capability allowing advisors and plan sponsors to select any lifestyle, asset allocation and target date investments currently available on ExpertPlan‚s open architecture recordkeeping platform.
The new technology also delivers real time reports showing employee participation rates and allows Plan Sponsors to elect ExpertPlan‚s automatic "step-up" deferral increase feature. Visit ExpertPlan at www.expertplan.com for more information.

Fidelity Increases Advisor Class Funds
Fidelity Investments has expanded its lineup of asset allocation funds available through financial advisors with the launch of Advisor classes of the Fidelity Asset Manager funds, each available with Class A, T, B, C and institutional shares. Fidelity now offers advisors and their clients access to a family of 88 Advisor funds.
For more information, advisors may visit https://advisor.fidelity.com.

Two Market Vectors ETFs Launched
The American Stock Exchange and New York-based investment adviser Van Eck Global have partnered to launch two ETFs, the Market Vectors–Environmental Services ETF (Amex: EVX) and the Market Vectors–Steel ETF (Amex: SLX).
The new ETFs are among the first to target these industries, both of which have outpaced the broader equity markets in recent years. Options on the new ETFs are listed on the Amex.