July 2012
Bells & Whistles:Bells & Whistles
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Illustration by Becca Stadtlander
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Each
month, Bells & Whistles highlights recent product introductions that plan
sponsors may find of interest.
More information about these announcements can be found on
www.plansponsor.com. If you have a product announcement that you believe would
be of interest to our readers, drop us a line at news@plansponsor.com.
INVESTMENTS
F-Squared Investments has upgraded its AlphaSector Fixed
Income Indices, now rebranded as AlphaSector INFInity. Key aspects of the
modifications to the indices, which are derived from “inflation neutral fixed
income,” include an ability to “de-risk” in challenging markets by 1) going
100% to short-term treasuries, 2) expanding the fixed-income sector exposure to
include Treasury inflation-protected securities (TIPs), and 3) floating rate
securities; they also feature a revised investment algorithm with an absolute
return decision framework. The enhanced indices will be included automatically
within existing AlphaSector Allocator, Asset Allocation and Target Risk indices
and portfolios.
Neuberger Berman Group LLC launched the Neuberger Berman
Absolute Return Multi-Manager Fund, with multiple subadvisers. The fund aims to
offer the liquidity and accessibility of a mutual fund and the underlying
investments of hedge fund strategies. Neuberger Berman’s fund-of-hedge-funds
team, the fund’s managers, is looking for capital appreciation with absolute
returns by allocating fund assets to multiple hedge fund advisers who employ a
mix of alternative investment strategies. Unlike traditional hedge funds, the
fund provides daily liquidity, lower investment minimums ($1,000 for Class A
and C shares), delivers 1099s to shareholders, offers full transparency of
portfolio holdings and has no performance-based management fee. The fund
employs the risk management and monitoring, mix of managers and strategies and
operational due diligence previously available only to institutional and
high-net-worth investors through traditional hedge funds.
Prudential Investments introduced the Prudential Jennison
International Opportunities Fund. The mutual fund aims for long-term capital
growth and broad international diversification by investing in companies
outside the U.S. Three share classes are available. Jennison Associates LLC,
the fund’s manager, will use a bottom-up selection process for the fund and a
flexible investment strategy without regional, country, sector or benchmark
constraints.
American Beacon Advisors launched American Beacon The London
Company Income Equity Fund to focus on dividend income and capital
appreciation. The fund seeks to generate a highly competitive dividend income
stream and invest in stocks to deliver capital appreciation. It has five
institutional and investor share classes, and its subadviser, The London Company,
is a registered investment adviser with $3.2 billion in assets under management
and $6.3 billion in total entity assets as of March 31.