Catalyst Launches Enhanced Income Strategy Fund

Catalyst Funds, a company offering alternative investment strategies and products, has launched the Catalyst Enhanced Income Strategy Fund.

The fund primarily invests in agency and non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), as well as other income securities backed by assets such as aircraft, automobiles, credit card receivables and student loans. Wynkoop LLC will subadvise the fund; Leland Abrams and Brandon Jundt will manage the portfolio.

Jerry Szilagyi, Catalyst Funds’ CEO, said that with interest rates on the rise, the fund offers investors an alternative income investment strategy based on market supply and risk-return analysis.

Catalyst Funds, based in Huntington, N.Y., currently offers 23 alternative strategy funds.

TD Ameritrade Partners With iPipeline To Automate New Account Openings

Advisors can now spend less time processing forms and more time managing clients’ assets, thanks to a partnership between TD Ameritrade Institutional and iPipeline Inc.

The two firms have collaborated on a solution to automate account openings. RIAs can execute account openings by simply choosing clients in a CRM and submitting iPipeline’s iGO fillable form via Laser App Anywhere mobile software to open an account with TD Ameritrade Institutional.

iPipeline’s solutions are designed to enable the life insurance and financial services industry to automate and simplify all new business, administration and in-force management tasks to achieve desirable business outcomes. TD Ameritrade Institutional is the first custodian to integrate iPipeline’s iGO account opening solution.

TD Ameritrade is headquartered in Omaha, Neb. iPipeline is headquartered in Exton, Pa.; it provides cloud-based software solutions for the insurance and financial services industry.

North Capital Debuts New Socially Conscious Investment Strategy

North Capital Investment Technology Inc., based in Salt Lake City, has launched a new investment vehicle—the REITless Impact Income Strategies. This socially conscious strategy is focused on lending and strategic debt investments primarily to single- and multi-family real estate development and redevelopment projects. The investment projects must produce positive social impact in communities nationwide, through job creation, affordable housing, energy efficiency and green-housing improvements that promote environmental sustainability.

North Capital’s founder, James P. Dowd, and his team of investment professionals will evaluate each investment opportunity, which will be available to both accredited investors and non-accredited investors who meet the qualifications of the offering.

North Capital Inc., an RIA, will manage the REITless strategy by making short-term loans and investments into the small-balance real estate market, where financing requirements are typically smaller than in institutional markets. Investors in the REITless strategies, unlike those in many other REITs, will not pay up-front selling commissions as part of the purchase price, and this enables investors to compound a greater percentage of their investment.

FFI Now Offering ETLS Strategy On SMArtX Advisory Solutions

FFI, a New York firm that offers investors risk-managed products and indexes associated with climate change (its name stands for “Fossil Free Indexes”) has put one of its offerings on a platform catering to RIAs and broker-dealers.

The firm’s Energy Transition Long-Short Strategy (ETLS) is an alternative index strategy meant to capitalize on a move away from the carbon-based economy. FFI is now offering the strategy on SMArtX, a managed accounts platform for RIAs and B-Ds.

The rules-based ETLS strategy invests long in clean energy companies and short on fossil fuel reserve owners. The socially conscious strategy was developed in partnership with Clean Edge Inc., a San Francisco-based research and advisory firm specializing in clean-energy technology, and Alpha Vee Solutions, which licenses smart beta multi-factor indices to asset managers. The new index is based on the premise that the long-term economic and policy environment favors clean energy over fossil fuels.

The investments in the strategy are populated from the universe of U.S.-listed clean energy companies compiled and maintained by Clean Edge. The short components are chosen from a U.S.-listed subset of FFI’s “Carbon Underground 200.” The 40 long and 20 short positions are selected and weighted using a proprietary rules-based approach that considers both financial and carbon factors.

Breathe Life Launches Self-Serve Digital Solution To Sell Insurance Products

Breathe Life, based in Montreal, Canada, has debuted a digital solution to sell insurance products to all consumers at every stage of their lives through the multi-function, self-service Breathe Life platform.

The product’s primary target audience is millennials, but it also serves anyone else seeking to learn more about insurance products that meet their needs, and to purchase them without professional assistance.

The platform provides on-boarding tools for converting sales leads, marketing insurance products and analyzing insurance sales reports. A white label carrier solution allows advisors to complete and manage applications digitally throughout the insurance transaction life cycle.