ADVISOR EMPORIUM

The program simplifies the account-opening process, assigns a service representative to each advisor to help him or her build a practice, doesn‚t compete against the advisor on the retail side, offers Advent Software‚s Advent Office Essentials at a reduced price and creates personalized training programs, including some on managed accounts, for advisors. For more information on EAInvest, visit www.eainvest.com.

Efficient Portfolios LLC of Falls Church, Va., has launched an online service for financial advisors that provides them with advanced investment analysis tools that focus on risk and return. The tools help advisors determine clients‚ risk tolerance, identify stocks and mutual funds that have performed best in various asset classes, optimize portfolios for the highest return at acceptable levels of risk, test portfolio changes, perform Monte Carlo simulation and select funds that have performed better than other investments. For more information, visit www.effport.com

Dalbar Recognizes SAFECO

SAFECO Life Insurance Co., based in Redmond, Wash., received top-10 rankings in four of seven categories in Dalbar‚s 2001 Financial Professional Survey, which evaluated mid-size variable-annuity firms. SAFECO was ranked No. 1 for inside wholesaler support. It ranked fourth in sales literature/marketing, sixth in operations support and eighth in in-person wholesaler report. More than 25 firms were evaluated in each category. For more information, visit www.safeco.com.

The Victory National Municipal Bond Fund, Class A Shares, has won the 2001 Lipper Performance Achievement Award. According to Lipper, the fund achieved the highest total return among a peer group of 92 intermediate municipal-debt funds for the five-year period ended December 31. For the one-, three- and five-year periods ended December 31, the Class A Shares returned 5.46%, 5.33% and 6.2%, respectively. For more information, visit www.victoryfunds.com or phone (800) 539-FUND.

Nuveen Investments has announced the IPOs of eight municipal closed-end exchange-traded funds. The successful launches could raise a total of approximately $1.05 billion. In addition, the funds expect to issue MuniPreferred shares, which could bring the combined assets of the eight funds to more than $1.5 billion. Of the eight funds offered–one national fund and one each for the states of Arizona, California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania–the national, California and New York funds feature the added characteristic of having a portfolio that is at least 80% insured. Each fund is traded on the American Stock Exchange. For more information, visit www.nuveen.com/etf.