Fidelity Offers Dual Business Platform
Financial planners who handle both fee and commission business will have a new platform to integrate their work with the launch of Fidelity Investments HybridOne.
Registered investment advisors in Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services and broker-dealers with National Financial will have access to HybridOne, which is being created to meet the needs of firms and advisors who conduct both types of business. Brokers and advisors who are dually registered are one of the fastest-growing segments in the financial services business.
HybridOne will offer investment products, technology, practice management support and other services. The new program will allow planners to view all account activity on one platform and will offer a range of investment products, including managed accounts, alternative investments and capital markets trading services, as well as access to Fidelity's practice management product.
Access to all accounts will be available through a single sign-on process. The program can be adapted as a planner's business changes between fee-based and commission accounts and services.
"Through HybridOne, we have taken a more holistic approach to serving the needs of dually registered firms and advisors," says Norman R. Malo, president and CEO of National Financial. "Should their business needs change and evolve, they can maintain their existing relationships with us since Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services and National Financial can respond through a broad range of business model solutions."
Between the two companies, Fidelity handles more than $1 trillion in assets through 3,400 RIA firms and 330 broker-dealer firms with 85,000 brokers and advisors. Additional information can be obtained by visiting http://www.FidelityHybridOne.com.
Symetra Offers Guaranteed Retirement Income
Symetra Life Insurance Co. is creating the Symetra Freedom Income Annuity to provide more affordable longevity insurance that will enable customers to use a smaller portion of current savings to buy guaranteed income for later retirement years. A minimum investment of $10,000 will buy income that cannot be outlived. The new product is designed to meet the needs of today's new retirees, whose life spans are getting longer and allow them to buy longevity insurance for when they reach their 80s and 90s.
Pershing Launches Trust Network
Pershing LLC, a subsidiary of The Bank of New York Mellon Corp., is launching a trust network for its introducing broker-dealers and independent registered investment advisors that is an open architecture platform. It will enable Pershing's customers to offer their clients a range of trust services through AST Capital Trust Co., Reliance Trust Co., Santa Fe Trust Inc., and Wilmington Trust.
The Network will enable Pershing's advisors and broker-dealers to perform investment management activities for their clients' trust accounts, including full trustee services, agent for trustee services and trust reporting.
Arrow Offers DWA Tactical Fund
Arrow Funds has created a new fund of funds, the DWA Tactical Fund, to give investors a more aggressive approach to investing than the Arrow DWA Balanced Fund. It will provide exposure across multiple market segments, concentrating primarily in exchange-traded funds.
Each of the Arrow funds has grown this year. The new fund will still invest among five rotation strategies using DWA's relative strength discipline but will expand the exposure range to each rotation strategy to give DWA more flexibility to focus its exposure. The result will be a more volatile fund with a goal of providing greater returns over a long term.
KBS Opens REIT Investment
KBS Real Estate Investment Trust II Inc. is announcing a public offering of 200 million shares of common stock at a maximum price of $10 per share. KBS REIT II is a non-traded product offered to the public through registered broker-dealers and investment advisors. The trust will use the proceeds of the offering to acquire and operate commercial real estate and real estate-related assets.
New Generation of Laserfiche Available
The digital document and records management system Laserfiche is launching Laserfiche 8 to provide more flexibility and scalability to help customers unify business information that is now stored in disparate systems and formats.
The new system is more closely integrated with the Microsoft operating platform, including Microsoft Office and Microsoft SharePoint.