PRODUCT WATCH

Planner college wants advisers to listen and learn

Columbia House has nothing on the College for Financial Planning.

Starting in September, the Denver-based college will offer a series of audio cassettes called “Financial Planning Perspectives: Investment Planning and Wealth Management.”

Topics included in the 12-month program include taxes and investing (December), closed-end funds (May 1999) and behavioral finance (August 1999).

Each month, subscribers will receive a 50-minute cassette, the presenter’s outline, a transcript of the presentation and a self-administered test to qualify for one hour of continuing-education credit. Upon successful completion of all 12 self-tests, subscribers will receive a record of completion for 12 hours of credit from the college.

Advisers who order on or before Aug. 7 will receive the early-subscriber rate of $185 for the series. After Aug. 7, the price will be $200.

Orders for the audio cassettes can be placed by phoning, faxing or mailing a request to the College of Financial Planning’s student service center.

Investors Network web site upgraded

Thomson Investors Network has been upgraded to include expanded research capabilities.

The Rockville, Md.-based company’s Stock Center has added indexed government filings and company profiles. The Mutual Fund Center also now features a guide explaining fund structure, fees and expenses, category definitions and regulatory issues.

The enhancements were sparked by customer suggestions, says Ray Kingman, president of Thomson Investors Network. The web site is http: www.thomsoninvest.net.

Keystone software allocates assets

Keystone Financial Inc., has launched, through its Keystone Brokerage affiliate, asset allocation software called KeyPremier Nautilus Series.

Advisers can use the software to determine which of the company’s portfolios best fits a particular investor.

Each portfolio contains KeyPremier mutual funds, plus funds from other families, including Putnam, Nuveen and T. Rowe Price. The minimum investment is $25,000.

Hancock annuity has bank fund option

John Hancock Funds of Boston has added the V.A. Regional Bank Fund as an investment option in its Declaration Variable Annuity. The new fund, which as of May 4 had $3 million in assets, invests primarily in underfollowed, inexpensive regional bank and thrift stocks picked for earnings fundamentals and the potential to benefit from a merger or acquisition.

The annuity offers tax-deferred investing in 15 John Hancock equity and fixed-income funds.

John Hancock also is now offering Class C, or level load shares, for seven of its funds: Growth and Income, Sovereign Investors, Independence Equity, Special Value, High Yield Bond, Strategic Income and Money Market.

The new shares are an alternative to A shares, which charge a front-end sales load, and B shares, which carry a back-end sales charge.

The C shares have no front-end load, no back-end load after a year and a 1% annual sales fee. The Boston-based company manages more than $36 billion in mutual fund assets.

Emerging market company news online

Internet Securities Inc., a provider of Internet-delivered news, has launched Investext Emerging Markets Select, covering worldwide emerging markets companies. The reports, a collaboration between Internet Securities and Investext Group, include company outlooks, market share data, analysis, financial projections and industry overviews.

Pru adds annual fee for basic brokerage

Prudential Securities Inc., the brokerage unit of Prudential Insurance Co. of America, is adding a $50 annual fee for clients who have a basic brokerage account. Clients with active accounts were previously not charged.

The move is designed to push assets into the firm’s Command Account, a cash management offering that provides an array of checking and banking services.

“It’s part of our asset gathering initiative,” says a spokeswoman for the New York-based unit.

The Command account requires a $10,000 minimum and charges $100 a year.

MFS site targets registered advisers

MFS Advisors Group has launched a World Wide Web site, http: ria.mfs.com, targeting registered investment advisers. It offers information such as fund availability through supermarkets and MFS’ portfolio management strategies.

Loomis Sayles site dissects expenses

Loomis Sayles & Co. has launched a web site, http: www.loomissayles.com, containing information on company funds, an analysis of expense ratios comparing each fund to its Lipper peers, an explanation of share classes and fact sheets on each of the 17 mutual funds, including manager commentary and information on the company’s research department.

New group wants to stay small

The Undiscovered Managers Fund, a newly registered open-end investment management company, has launched seven separately managed institutional mutual funds. Each is subadvised by a small institutional money management firm and is expected to be closed at a relatively small size to ensure adequate liquidity for the manager’s investment process. Each subadviser has a minimum of $175 million of separate account assets currently under management and has the capacity to add more assets.

The subadvisers each hold a relatively small number of stocks in each portfolio, with the large-cap funds owning 25 to 35 issues and the small-cap funds, 40 to 55.

Ivy offering diverse junk

Ivy Management Inc. of Boca Raton, Fla., has introduced a junk bond fund emphasizing the entertainment, media, gambling, supermarket, health care and telecommunications industries. Up to 10% of the fund’s portfolio can be invested in foreign bonds.

It’s managed by Leslie Ferris, who has 16 years of portfolio management experience. She also manages the company’s investment-grade corporate bond fund, the Ivy Bond Fund. Class A, B, C, I and adviser shares will be offered.

Quantitative alters 3 names

The Quantitative Group of five low-load stock mutual funds established in 1985 has changed the names of three of them. The Small Cap Fund is now the Numeric Fund; the Mid Cap Fund is the Numeric II Fund; and the Emerging Markets Fund is now known as Foreign Frontier Fund.

In addition to the name changes, Quantitative Mid Cap Fund recently reached its third anniversary and was awarded four stars by Morningstar. Its one-year, three-year and since-inception average annual returns are 46.94%, 34.92% and 32.08% respectively.

Diversified adds 2 asset allocation funds

Diversified Investment Advisors of Purchase, N.Y., widened the spectrum of its Strategic Asset Allocation Fund family with the addition of the Short/Intermediate Term Horizon Fund and the Long Horizon Fund. There are now five time-weighted asset allocation funds in the series. All five funds invest in Diversified’s existing manager-of-managers equity, bond and money market mutual funds. They are designed for use in the defined contribution plan market.

New Lord Abbett fund invests in 3 cousins

Lord Abbett & Co. of New York has added a fund of funds.

The Lord Abbett Alpha Series Fund invests in three existing small-cap equity funds managed by the company in the following allocations: about 30% to the Lord Abbett Developing Growth Fund, about 30% to the Research Fund — Small-Cap Series and about 40% to the Investment Trust — International Series.

IPO policy insures officers and directors

The Chubb Group of Insurance Cos. has introduced an insurance policy to help protect companies and their directors and officers from liabilities associated with taking their firms public. The Warren, N.J., insurer said nearly one in seven publicly traded companies will face a class action alleging securities fraud. Close to one-quarter emanate from IPOs, about 800 of which are filed each year with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Send product news and information to Wendy Hong at InvestmentNews, 220 E. 42nd St., Ninth Floor, New York, N.Y. 10017-5846.