Schafer Cullen And Water Asset Management Launch Water Strategy
Schafer Cullen Capital Management, a New York City portfolio management firm, and Water Asset Management, a specialty portfolio manager, have embarked on a partnership to invest in companies working to solve the world’s water scarcity and quality challenges.

Water Asset Management looks for companies with attractive business models focusing on solving global water supply and demand imbalances. It looks at an investable universe of 250 global companies working to ensure the supply and quality of water. These companies come in five segments: water infrastructure and services, water utilities, water treatment technologies, water test control and measurement and water resources.

The new portfolio strategy, called the Schafer Cullen Water Asset Management Impact Strategy, is being offered to investors worldwide as a separately managed account, and is available through many major custodians.

Matthew Diserio, an industry veteran with 37 years of experience, serves as subadvisor to the new offering. He is also president and co-founder of Water Asset Management, as well as the firm’s public equity portfolio manager.

The firm is donating a portion of all investment fees it collects as subadvisor to WaterAid, the world’s largest water and sanitation-focused charity, which provides access to clean water and sanitation to more than 26 million people in the developing world.

LPL Offers Leave-Of-Absence Client Service Coverage
LPL Financial has launched a business solution providing client service coverage to advisors taking a short-term leave of absence.

Resilience Plan, the new offering from LPL Business Solutions, provides coverage for up to nine months for family, medical or personal reasons, including maternity and paternity leave. With professional support from LPL’s in-house team of licensed financial representatives, the plan provides account management, trade support and annual reviews, with no elimination period or exclusions for pre-existing conditions.

Before a participating advisor’s leave of absence, LPL’s in-house team will notify clients of the temporary change in service. Upon the advisor’s return, LPL will be removed from client accounts, ensuring a seamless transition of advisory services.

Timothy Plan Introduces Two New Faith-Based ETFs
Timothy Partners, the Orlando, Fla.-based advisor to the Timothy Plan family of funds, has announced the launch of two new exchange-traded funds: the Timothy Plan US Large/Mid Cap Core Enhanced ETF (TPLE) and the Timothy Plan High Dividend Stock Enhanced ETF (TPHE).

These funds offer Christian advisors and their clients affordable, tax-efficient investment vehicles well-suited to portfolio diversification based on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) criteria. The two funds also employ a smart-beta strategy that seeks to reduce risk while exploiting inefficiencies of traditional market indexing to generate competitive returns.

Riskalyze Introduces New Best Interest Proposal Assessment
Riskalyze, a financial technology company headquartered in Auburn, Calif., has introduced a Best Interest Proposal Assessment that equips compliance teams and advisors with the documentation required to demonstrate that a rollover of moneys from a retirement account—such as a 401(k) or 403(b)—is in the client’s best interest.

The U.S. Department of Labor and the Securities and Exchange Commission are issuing more compliance standards and requirements, and Riskalyze’s assessment is designed to help advisors propose portfolios that best match their clients’ needs; document the source of funds; and, if necessary, complete a rollover assessment.

The assessment can be enabled on Riskalyze Enterprise Select or Riskalyze Enterprise Elite customer accounts. It also allows advisors to archive proposals and rollover assessments, as well as deliver its results in PDF or printed report format.

The Riskalyze assessment is now available to eligible Enterprise customers. For further information, visit the Riskalyze Knowledge Base or email [email protected].

Raymond James, Norwich University Partner To Train Advisor Vets
Raymond James, a financial services company headquartered in St. Petersburg, Fla., has partnered with Norwich University in Northfield, Vt., to launch a new academic offering to train financial advisors with military service experience.

As the oldest U.S. private military college and the birthplace of ROTC, Norwich University is dedicated to providing higher education opportunities for military members and veterans—a key goal of the Raymond James Advisor Mastery Program as well.

Through their partnership, made possible by an existing relationship between the Raymond James talent acquisition team and the Veteran Initiative, a non-profit 501(c)(3) military employment organization, advisors with the Advisor Mastery Program who complete the program and obtain their licenses to practice will qualify for the equivalent of Norwich University’s graduate course in investment portfolio management (the equivalent of six graduate level credits).

For further information, visit: online.norwich.edu/RaymondJames