ADVISORport Acquires RunMoney

ADVISORport has acquired RunMoney Corp., a registered investment advisor that offers separately managed account programs, back-office support and educational programs for planners.

"This acquisition enables ADVISORport to provide the industry‚s most robust, online educational and advisor development program," says Gregory S. Horn, ADVISORport‚s chairman and CEO. RunMoney‚s Center for Advisor Development and its highly developed curriculum devoted to advisor instruction and resources will serve as the foundation for ADVISORport‚s educational initiative, he added.

Robert Jorgensen, RunMoney‚s chairman and CEO, will join ADVISORport as director of advisor development. "Under Robert‚s direction, we can now provide a wealth of educational support that will make the ADVISORport platform even more attractive to large brokerage, banking, CPA and insurance organizations seeking to penetrate the advisor market," said Stephen J. DeAngelis, president of ADVISORport.

ADVISORport, (www.advisorport.com), is based in Philadelphia and serves independent advisors and broker-dealers, bank and trust companies, certified public accountants and money management firms. Its online platform offers separate-account money managers, mutual funds, brokerages and hedge funds, as well as client profiling tools, asset allocation analysis, performance monitoring, rebalancing models and customized proposals and reports. The firm services accounts representing more than $1.7 billion in assets for more than 80 clients.

Buchanan Street Partners has introduced The Buchanan Fund III. The fund will make mezzanine debt and equity investments in commercial and multi-family properties throughout the western United States and selected net-leased properties nationwide. According to Bentley Kerr, vice president of investor services, the fund is expected to have a total equity capitalization of $50 million to $75 million and is targeting an overall net return of 18% plus with a 9% plus current payment.

Buchanan Street Partners is a California-based real estate investment bank with offices in Newport Beach, Los Angeles and San Francisco. For information, contact Chris MacDonald, executive vice president, at (949) 219-1581 or Kerr at (949) 219-1586.

GoldK, a provider of employer-sponsored online retirement plans based in Waltham, Mass., has signed an agreement to distribute its plans through LPL Financial Services.

The deal puts GoldK retirement plans in the hands of more than 3,800 registered representatives in 1,800 branch offices across LPL‚s nationwide network. LPL manages more than $40 billion in client assets and operates from dual headquarters in Boston and San Diego. More information on GoldK can be found at its Web site, www.goldk.com.

Money Tree Software in Corvallis, Ore., has released updated financial planning software with new reports, features and tax rules. The company also released a conversion utility to import M-Plan data into Money Tree Suite, which includes Easy Money, Golden Years, Retirement Solutions and Money Tools software. Updated software and demos are available at the company‚s Web site, www.moneytree.com.

SunAmerica, based in Los Angeles, has introduced a new variable annuity, Polaris Choice. The annuity offers more short-term flexibility because it charges on withdrawals only in the first three years following each purchase payment in the contract. The charges decline annually, from 7% to 6% to 5%. Among other features, the annuity offers access to 15 money managers, 35 variable investment options and three fixed-rate accounts. For a free prospectus, call (800) 445-SUN2.

A new version of the popular portfolio-management software Center-piece has been released by a subsidiary of The Charles Schwab Corp.

Performance Technologies Inc. (PTI) has begun offering Centerpiece 5.5, which provides advanced fixed-income tracking and analytics, as well as tools to ease manual entry of portfolio data. Centerpiece, only available to independent investment advisors working with PTI and Schwab Institutional, combines accounting, client reporting and performance tracking in a networked application. Centerpiece 5.5 upgrades are available on the PTI Web site, www.centerpiece.com, or by calling (800) 528-9595. To download a viewable demo of Centerpiece 5.5, visit www.centerpiece.com/demo.html.