BNY, Insight Bring Absolute Return Fund Stateside
New York-based BNY Mellon Investment Management has launched its first fund subadvised by London-based Insight Investment.

The BNY Mellon Absolute Insight Multi-Strategy Fund is the first mutual fund launched in the U.S. to be managed by Insight, which brings a 10-year track record of instituting absolute return products to the U.S. The fund is intended to provide investors with resilient absolute returns through episodes of market dislocation by emphasizing capital preservation over 12-month periods with volatility similar to that of conservative fixed-income assets and a low correlation to stocks and bonds.

Sonja Uys, lead fund manager, said, “We find that investors are looking for strategies that can be resilient through turbulent periods. Our fund can invest across a range of absolute return strategies in order to achieve a high degree of built-in diversification.”

Uys, who is supported by specialist managers responsible for the underlying portfolios, says that the new fund can be used effectively to diversify institutional and individual retirement portfolios.

According to Uys, the fund’s mandate is to invest in six strategies including equities, fixed income and currencies.

The fund will be advised by the Dreyfus Corporation, a BNY Mellon Company, and distributed by MBSC Securities Corporation (MBSC), a subsidiary of Dreyfus. The fund will be available in Class A, C and I shares with a minimum $1,000 initial investment. It will also be available in Institutional Y shares with a minimum investment of $1 million, with no minimum subsequent investment.

The new fund will trade under the ticker MAJIX.
 

Cordium Launches Social Media Review Service
New York-based compliance consulting and software firm Cordium has launched a new social media review service.

In an era where regulators are more closely monitoring compliance across digital platforms, business communications via social media have become an area of interest.

The social media review service assists firms in monitoring social media profiles and publicly available content. 

It can be tailored to clients’ needs, and will include access to a team of researchers trained to identify content that may result in business and reputational harm. It also includes a consistent approach to searching publicly available social media profiles and content, it allows for the prompt reporting of problematic and derogatory posts, and it allows for the monitoring of breaches to a firm’s social media and confidentiality policies.

 

Elkhorn Adds Smart Beta Dividend ETF
Wheaton, Ill.-based Elkhorn Capital Group has announced the launch of the Elkhorn FTSE RAFI U.S. Equity Income ETF.

The new ETF, benchmarked to the FTSE RAFI U.S. Equity Income Index, offers a risk-managed approach to high-yield dividend investing. Research Affiliates screens high-dividend paying stocks for financial health and applies fundamental weighting to them. This is based on Research Affiliates studies that show fundamental investing in high-dividend companies can eliminate financially unsound companies and can mitigate sector concentration risk.

Ideally, the strategy reliably exposes investors to dividend stocks while shielding them from the payout cuts that some high-yield stocks are prone to.

The fund currently contains 159 stocks and charges 39 basis points per year.

 

Orion Introduces Business Intelligence Platform
Omaha-based Orion Advisor Services has launched its Orion Business Intelligence platform after a lengthy beta testing process.

The platform represents a new generation of business metrics reporting and analytics software for advisors, updated with technical and visual enhancements, features and functions.

Advisors can monitor and drill down on business trends and address questions—such as AUM changes over time; new accounts opened by month, year or quarter; transaction types; top performers; cash flows; and demographic trends—as the platform sends data directly to them.

The platform is now available to all advisors who use Orion.

Vanguard Launching New Bond Fund
Valley Forge, Pa.-based Vanguard has announced a new actively managed fixed-income fund—the Vanguard Core Bond Fund.

The low-cost fund will invest in a diversified portfolio of high-quality bonds, including Treasurys, mortgage-backed securities and corporate securities of varying yields and maturities.

The fund will offer investor shares with an expense ratio of 25 basis points and admiral shares with an expense ratio of 15 basis points.

Expected to be available in the first quarter of 2016, the fund will be managed by Vanguard Fixed Income Group and will seek to outperform the broad investment-grade U.S. fixed-income market.

 

Edelman Adds Natural Resources SPDR
Fairfax, Va.-based Edelman Financial Services has added the SPDR S&P North American Natural Resources ETF (ticker: NANR) to most of its client portfolios.

State Street Global Advisors launched NANR to reflect Edelman’s concern that other natural resource funds tended to be heavily weighted in oil stocks. NANR tracks the S&P BMI North American Natural Resources Index, which allocates 45% to energy, 35% to materials and 20% to agriculture. Its expense ratio is 35 basis points.