Product Watch: Portfolio evaluation for AmEx plan participants

American Express Retirement Services, a division of New York-based American Express Co., has launched a program that allows employees to evaluate their retirement profiles.

Relying on both visual aids and text, the Personalized Retirement Evaluation Program uses the employees’ payroll and 401(k) or other defined-contribution-plan information to generate analyses of their retirement savings needs. Employees receive a personalized, four-color statement in the mail.

The Minneapolis-based unit also is launching free online education programs for employees of client companies. Financial Education Basics Online is a series of three- to five-minute web-based presentations about basic financial concepts. Module topics include goal setting, cash flow and net worth, and cash reserves.

The presentations feature animated text, photos and speaking. Users can view the presentations at their own pace. The unit’s financial education and planning services group expects to release additional presentations later.

Telerate trading tool gets an upgrade

Moneyline Telerate in New York has released WebStation Version 2.1. WebStation provides traders with market data in a portable customizable workstation that operates over the Internet or a dedicated network.

The latest version offers language support for English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean; live analytics; real-time spreadsheet feeds; and technical-analysis tools. It can be used on the trading floor, in offices or on home computers.

FOLIOfn models allow customizing

FOLIOfn Inc. of Vienna, Va., has made available professionally managed model portfolios. It allows advisers to open a single account for a client and subscribe them to multiple model portfolios.

That allows advisers to customize each client’s account using various styles and asset classes under different managers. FOLIOfn offers the model portfolios through numerous money management firms.

Group-annuity users get individual advice

Personal Mutual Fund Management Inc., of Bogart, Ga., is offering individuals investment management advice through its 401k Toolbox. The service is marketed through third-party administrators and brokers who use the Group Annuity 401(k) product from Lincoln Financial Group of Philadelphia.

Participants also can sign up through their employers or individually. Individuals receive a proprietary newsletter with portfolio advice. Readers can implement the advice themselves or choose to become clients of the firm. Likewise, employees have the option of receiving advice or permitting PMFM to actively manage their assets.

Annuity comparison with major indexes

Monte Carlo Plans, a product line of Leapfrog Media Partners in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., has released Version 1.3 of its MCPlanz Investment Analysis software. The software compares equity index annuities with major market indexes. Users can adjust caps, apply asset fees and choose from popular crediting methods.

Users also can save reports in Snapshot format (similar to PDF) for easy storage and e-mail transmission, and can print full-color reports.

Touchstone adds a small-cap fund

Touchstone Investments in Cincinnati has launched the Touchstone Small Cap Growth Fund. It will seek long-term capital growth and will invest at least 80% of its assets in equities of small-cap companies. Touchstone is part of the Western and Southern Financial Group.

CheckFree offering multiple strategies

CheckFree Investment Services of Jersey City, N.J., has released a multiple-strategy portfolio that lets the separate accounts industry use unaffiliated managers in a single account.

Multiple-strategy portfolios with unaffiliated managers are often referred to as “best-of-breed” programs, because the master manager retains control and can make changes according to a portfolio’s performance objectives.

CheckFree’s portfolio will allow a master manager to oversee a client’s portfolio while the investor benefits from the input of a team of managers.

401(k) provider adds asset allocator

E401k Inc., an online provider of 401(k) plans in Lafayette, Calif., now offers an asset-allocation rebalancing program to complement advice given by the company’s financial services partners.

Free to participants and plan sponsors, the program automatically sells stocks at a high and buys bonds at a low. The goal is to maintain a proper investment allocation that potentially will reduce risk and enhance the opportunity for growth.

Advisers to wealthy get Fidelity platform

Fidelity Investments Institutional Brokerage Group of Boston has introduced a platform of specialized investment products and services to expand investment advisers’ wealth-management capabilities.

FidelityWealthAccess organizes high-net-worth services and products around several key areas, including wealth planning, individual securities and resources for wealth managers.

Manulife offers twist on separates

Manulife Financial Corp. of Toronto is entering the managed-account business.

Unlike many separate-account programs that require investors to open numerous asset-management agreements to access different managers, the Manulife Private Account promises access to multiple investment managers and personalized wealth management strategies in one core account.

Manulife is targeting affluent clients, with minimum investment set at $100,000. Citigroup Asset Management of Stamford, Conn., will serve as the overall portfolio manager, and will coordinate and implement the investment decisions of the program’s underlying managers.

Legacy Planning broadens business

Legacy Planning Group, a registered investment adviser in Redding, Calif., is increasing its financial management services by creating a life management and wealth investment company. Legacy now focuses on aligning clients’ values with business and investment advice.

Scudder adds variable annuity

Scudder Investments of New York has added a variable annuity, ZS4, that lets clients access their funds without incurring a surrender charge on assets held for four contract years.

The ZS4 also features one standard and two optional death-benefit riders. The death benefits guarantee that beneficiaries will receive at least the original amount invested by the annuity owner. Scudder Investments is a unit of Deutsche Asset Management USA.

Small-biz retirement offering simplified

Boston-based Fidelity Investments Institutional Brokerage Group has enhanced its retirement plan for small businesses.

The Fidelity Premiere Select 401(k)/Profit Sharing Plan now has 90 mutual funds available in 11 mutual fund families.

It offers redesigned employer proposal and plan startup kits, as well as a new sales kit for investment professionals.

In addition, plan sponsors and participants now can access account information, reallocate funds and change investment elections online.

Fidelity also is offering discounted rates to broker-dealers on retirement education and training programs offered through its new alliance with BISYS Retirement Services of Brainerd, Minn.

Hard-asset fund started in Bahamas

Green Cay Asset Management Ltd. in Nassau, Bahamas, has announced that it is launching a new fund.

The Siebels Hard Asset Fund is designed to capitalize on anomalies that exist in hard assets. It will invest on the long side in companies in commodities, basic materials, companies trading below book or cash value, real estate companies, oil and energy companies, and inexpensive companies with real assets.

On the short side, it will invest in companies trading at large premiums to book, replacement or net-asset value; high-cost basic materials companies; and companies with decreasing demand.

The fund will have a normal position of 50% long to 50% short. Its mandate, however, allows it to have as little as 40% exposure on either side. The fund may be leveraged up to 300%.

N.C. college plan adds an option

North Carolina’s National College Savings Program in Raleigh has added an investment option, offering clients a principal-and-earnings guarantee.

The Protected Stock Fund, with a guarantee provided by MetLife Inc. of New York, is designed for investors who want to protect their principal and receive a reasonable return, but still have the opportunity to participate in stock market increases.

The fund requires a lump-sum minimum investment of $1,000 for a five-year period. More information is on the website cfnc.org/savings.

Investors can be hometown heroes

The International Entrepreneur Network, LocalFund Inc. and Investor Life Services Inc. of Lima, Ohio, have developed a hometown investing program connecting local entrepreneurs and hometown investors through investor-entrepeneur networks on the Internet.

The program also offers strategies and financial insurance for investors who fund hometown entrepreneurial ventures that may have represented significant risks in the past.

Financial Engines adds specificity

Financial Engines Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif., has added specific advice modules to its technology assistance platform, enabling advisers using the Financial Engines Professional Advisor to provide pertinent investment recommendations to clients.

The first three solutions are IRA Rollover QuickSolve, to help clients with their IRA rollover decision; NewMoney Quicksolve, to help clients invest a lump sum of new money; and Rebalance Quicksolve, to help advisers rebalance clients’ portfolios tax-efficiently.

Universal life policy from The Hartford

The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. in Connecticut has introduced a universal life insurance policy offering a lifetime protection guarantee and fixed-rate cash-value growth.

Stag Universal Life Plus is designed for consumers needing permanent life insurance to transfer their wealth, protect their income or plan for the continuation of their businesses.

The policy features a no-lapse guarantee that ensures coverage to age 100 for a predetermined level premium. Stag Universal Life Plus is issued by Hartford Life Insur- ance Co. and Hartford Life and Annuity Insurance Co.

BB&T broker targets novice investors

BB&T Investment Services Inc., a broker-dealer in Charlotte, N.C., has introduced an online service targeting first-time investors. BB&T ShareBuilder enables first-time investors to automatically invest in stocks and index securities.

The service targets customers who would like to begin an investment program but have a limited amount of money to invest monthly. By accessing BB&T’s ShareBuilder website, investors will be able to invest regularly with no minimums, annual fees or inactivity fees.

ShareBuilder is offered through ShareBuilder Securities Corp., a unit of Netstock Corp. in Bellevue, Wash.

S&P tool an aid in sector investing

Standard & Poor’s of New York offers Sector Investor, a tool to help advisers select and evaluate market sectors as investment targets.

Sector Investor allows users to review the best- and worst-performing sectors and subindustries within the S&P SuperComposite 1500 Index, and learn about the performance of each. Users will also have immediate access to recommendations for related equity-based investments, including sector funds. Standard & Poor’s developed Sector Investor as part of its Advisor Insight product suite for investment advisers and brokers.

Jigsaw a solution to risk puzzle

COR Risk Solutions, a London-based global provider of advanced portfolio analytics and software, has launched a range of component software.

Called BITA Jigsaw, the software is designed to enable securities solution providers, systems integrators and in-house development teams to integrate specialized risk management functionality into their system offerings. BITA Jigsaw components can be individually selected by systems providers to enhance the competitiveness of their own products.

COR Risk Solutions also is offering services to support host-system partners, including sales support, implementation and integration, and software development.