Morningstar Adds New Categories
Morningstar is rolling out 11 new categories and eliminating one this month. The Chicago-based fund rating service says the new categories will make it easier for investors to find the fund they‚re looking for and identify the most skilled managers more quickly.
Morningstar decided to split its domestic hybrid category because it had become too broad. In recent years, fund companies have gotten much more specific about targeting various asset mixes. Morningstar notes Vanguard alone has nine different funds in the domestic-hybrid category and the group itself has grown to 398 funds, making it the third-largest category. As a result of the split, funds with 20% to 50% in equities and 50% or more in fixed income will be classified as conservative allocation. Funds with more than 50% in equities will be labeled moderate allocation.
Morningstar also is creating six new state-specific municipal-bond fund categories covering Florida, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio and Minnesota. The new categories should make it easier for investors to find the funds they want and compare performance, Morningstar says.
The company also is introducing these categories:
• Muni High-Yield. It will include any fund with a majority of assets in BBB-rated bonds or lower. The new category allows investors to make better comparisons of high-yield muni managers.
• Bank-Loan Funds. It‚s for funds that have a majority of their assets in floating-rate bank loans. These funds are growing in popularity, but much riskier than the ultrashort-bond funds with which they had been lumped.
• Bear-Market Funds. Although the category doesn‚t yet have 20 funds, Morningstar decided to create it because funds such as these use short-selling techniques and don‚t fit in current categories. The funds won‚t get star ratings because they vary too much in their portfolio characteristics and risk-reward profiles.
The firm also is changing requirements in some existing categories. For more information, visit advisor.morningstar.com.
Lockwood Rolls Out Products
Malvern, Pa.-based Lockwood Advisors Inc. is planning an 18-city tour to promote new products and its service platform for independent financial advisors.
The company, recently purchased by The Bank of New York Company Inc., is introducing a mutual fund wrap product, registered no-load hedge funds, an overlay management product, a mortgage origination capability, a mutual fund supermarket, an on-line trading platform, a passive municipal fixed-income product and collateralized lending services.
The tour meetings are designed to recruit new advisors as clients and educate current clients about the firm's expanded services.
Additional information is available at www.bankofny.com.
MSC Real Estate Program
Mutual Service Corporation (MSC) of West Palm Beach, Fla., has introduced The MSC Real Estate Product Forum, an educational program providing training in real estate investments to a group of the firm‚s top advisors.
The program includes Web-based training, plus three one-day meetings that take place at the headquarters of three leading real estate companies: CNL, Inland and Wells. Among other subjects, the curriculum will include: "How Real Estate Impacts a Portfolio," "The Acquisition Process," and "The Real Estate Cycle."
MSC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pacific Life Insurance Co., is one of the nation‚s largest independent full-service broker-dealers and has more than 1,600 Advisors across the country. For more information on MSC, visit www.mutualservice.com.
Statement One Data Tool
StatementOne of Lawrenceville, N.J., has introduced TransPro, a fully automated data conversion tool. TransPro backloads historical account data and client information from third-party software systems, such as Advent Axys and FCSI‚s dbCAMS.
"TransPro has allowed our reps and advisors to complete the process of fully automating the steps necessary to deliver quality data consolidation and performance reports to their clients, without sacrificing the years of history that had been maintained in other systems," says Amy Webber, chief operating officer of Fairfield, Iowa-based Cambridge Investment Research.
For more information, contact David Z. Orban, StatementOne‚s vice president of marketing, at (609) 806-0227.