Women's Choice Award For Advisors
A new award recognizes dedicated advisors who effectively serve female clients.

WomenCertified Inc. created the Women’s Choice Award for Financial Advisors, which recognizes businesses and brands based on recommendations from female consumers. They partnered with the Women’s Institute for Financial Education—WIFE.org—to create an award that recognizes financial advisors who provide quality service and exhibit a strong commitment to their female clients.

Advisors are evaluated on 17 criteria based on a survey of their female clients. The certification process also verifies that the advisor has the appropriate credentials and licensing, is in compliance with regulatory requirements and is in good standing with his or her affiliated firm.

The recognition is intended to help women find an advisor who is trustworthy and offers best practices, ideas and support. The selection process prevents advisors with a history of wrongdoing or misconduct from attaining the award.

“While everyone needs to do their research when choosing an advisor, we are proud to support the women we serve in making the most informed decision possible,” says Ginita Wall, WIFE co-founder, regarding the award. For more information, visit www.wife.org.


RiverPark Introduces Fund
RiverPark Advisors has launched the RiverPark Structural Alpha Fund, an open-end mutual fund that provides exposure to broad-based equity markets while limiting downside risk and volatility by investing primarily in highly liquid global-index options.

It is the third liquid alternatives fund for the New York-based investment advisory firm. Its other funds are the RiverPark Long/Short Opportunity Fund and the Gargoyle Hedged Value Fund.

“We are big believers in the advantages of liquid alternatives,” says Morty Schaja, chief executive officer of RiverPark Funds. “We plan to continue to explore new ways to offer investors and their advisors hedged exposure to the market.”


LTCI Partners Launches Certification Program
LTCI Partners, a nationwide long-term care insurance wholesaler, has launched a certification-training program that helps advisors stay compliant with state requirements for selling LTC policies.

“Financial institutions such as banks and broker-dealers have very strict compliance infrastructure, and we can help those organizations stay on top of long-term care insurance compliance and contracting,” says Tom Riekse Jr., managing principal for LTCI Partners. Certificates of completion and continuing education are filed with the appropriate state by the next business day.


Washington Wealth Management Launches MobilitySelect
Washington Wealth Management’s new MobilitySelect platform is designed to support advisors who work in a remote or non-traditional office location.

“From older advisors who no longer require a full office to service their clients, to newly independent advisors seeking to streamline their expenses, to working parents who want to cut down on their commuting, our MobilitySelect platform enables us to actively supervise these advisors in a way that protects them and their clients while also empowering their continued growth,” says Rob Bartenstein, CEO of Washington Wealth Management.

The platform provides compliance and supervisory services, technology solutions and support, management support and problem resolution.


SunGard Introduces WealthStation Plan Track
SunGard has released WealthStation Plan Track, a new tool that gives advisors the ability to illustrate to clients how their financial plan projections compare to their actual account performance.

Intended to help advisors and clients achieve financial outcomes, the WealthStation Plan Track combines data from different accounts into one set to display how values are expected to change in the future. It gives advisors the ability to set an acceptable range of deviation for account values and triggers alerts or corrective actions for the advisor if deemed necessary.


Vanguard’s Global Minimum Volatility Fund
Valley Forge, Pa.-based Vanguard Group is launching its Global Minimum Volatility Fund. The new actively managed equity fund will seek to provide long-term capital appreciation with lower volatility relative to the global equity market. The fund will invest approximately half its assets in stocks of U.S.
companies and half in stocks of foreign companies.

The fund will offer two share classes, Investor Shares and Admiral Shares. Investor Shares require a minimum initial investment of $3,000. The Admiral Shares require a minimum initial investment of $50,000.