New products and changes introduced over the last week include a global bond fund from DoubleLine; a generic drug ETF from Van Eck Global; a technology ETF from State Street Global Advisors; an alternative solutions fund from the Archstone Partnerships; a global bond fund from DoubleLine; 19 added investment options in a suite of Security Benefit's variable annuities; and the launch of single ticker strategies by FTJ FundChoice.
Also, Oppenheimer Asset Management introduced its unified advisory platform; BroadRiver completed the sale of its life settlements portfolio; Financial Engines updated its Social Security planner; Lombard International Assurance is acquiring Zurich Eurolife S.A.'s private banking solutions business; and Rage Frameworks launched its LiveWealth solution.
Here are the latest developments of interest to advisors:
1) DoubleLine Launches Global Bond Fund
DoubleLine Capital has launched the DoubleLine Global Bond Fund (DBLGX, DLBGX), which seeks long-term returns from international credit markets.
DBLGX will normally be invested in in debt obligations issued by governments and governmental agencies, authorities or instrumentalities located anywhere in the world. It expects to invest significantly in obligations of members of the G-20, an organization of governments comprising 20 of the major economies in the world, including in developed and emerging markets.
Under normal conditions, it will have significant exposure to foreign currencies.
Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO and chief investment officer of DoubleLine, is portfolio manager of the new global bond fund; he will be supported by DoubleLine investment-team members, such as Luz Padilla, William Campbell, Valerie Ho and Gregory Whiteley.
"The investment teams at DoubleLine have deep experience managing non-dollar investments as well as foreign bonds. The question was not if but when we would offer our global bond strategy," Gundlach said in a statement.
"With the dollar having rallied so sharply in recent years, non-dollar-denominated assets now have much greater value than at any time since the founding of DoubleLine," he explained. "So we internally launched the DoubleLine Global Bond Fund last month and [on Jan. 11] opened the fund to investors."
2) Van Eck Adds Generic Drug ETF
Van Eck Global has launched the Market Vectors Generic Drugs ETF (GNRX), which targets global manufacturers of generic drugs and biosimilars, similar copies of existing but difficult to replicate biological drugs.
GNRX seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Indxx Global Generics & New Pharma Index.
To be included in the index, companies must derive a significant proportion of their revenues, or have the potential to derive a significant proportion of their revenues, from the generic drug industry or have a primary business focus on the generic drug industry. Constituents must also meet market capitalization, daily trading volume, and daily trading activity requirements.
3) State Street Launches Technology ETF
State Street Global Advisors has launched the SPDR FactSet Innovative Technology ETF (XITK), which seeks to provide exposure to companies with high revenue growth, including companies involved in cutting edge research, innovative product and service development, disruptive business models or a combination of these.
XITK seeks to track the FactSet Innovative Technology Index, which is designed to represent the performance of U.S.-listed stocks and American Depository Receipts (ADRs) of technology-related companies with high revenue growth. The index is designed to track companies within the highest growth segments of the technology sector and the electronic media subsector of the media sector.
4) Oppenheimer Introduces Passport Platform
Oppenheimer Asset Management (or OAM) has introduced plans for its unified advisory platform, Passport, which will consolidate the accounting and trading platforms to manage all of its fee-based offerings. It will be made available to Oppenheimer & Co.'s 1,300 advisors in the winter of 2016.
The platform is the first step in an OAM platform improvement project, which will replace a number of legacy systems and streamline operational processes to improve the advisory and trading tools available to advisors, as well as enable OAM to provide better guidance and improve the oversight of its advisory programs. As part of this initial launch, Vestmark and OAM have integrated Vestmark's unified wealth management platform VestmarkONE with Oppenheimer's underlying custody and trading platforms.
5) Archstone Partnerships Adds Alternative Solutions Fund
