Portfolio

Van Eck Global has launched the Market Vectors LatAm Aggregate Fund ETF, which will track the BofA Merrill Lynch Broad Latin America Bond Index.

BOSTON - Managed accounts used to be for the wealthy, but in the last 18 to 24 months, they have become increasingly available to the mass affluent because of a reduction in costs and an increase in efficiency, said AJ Harper, managing director of Lockwood Advisors, an affiliate of Pershing, a BNY Mellon company, in an interview at the Money Management Institute annual conference here.

Community banks’ investment programs are not yet back to their pre-financial-crisis levels of success, but the numbers confirm that 2010 was a step in the right direction.

The previous minimum was $3,000 for eleven of the twelve funds in the series.

In the last 18 to 24 months these proudcts have become increasingly available to the mass affluent because of a reduction in costs and an increase in efficiency, said AJ Harper, managing director of Lockwood Advisors, an affiliate of Pershing, in an interview at the Money Management Institute annual conference.

Their plans are evidenced in a survey by Harris Interactive for Aberdeen Asset Management.

But investors redeem $1.9 billion from equity funds.

The “magic” 5% tax-free yield is ­sustaining strong demand from retail investors.

Only 45% of affluent investors are satisfied with their employer-sponsored retirement plan provider, according to a report from Cogent Research. Forty-three percent say they are somewhat satisfied, and 12% are dissatisfied.

Putnam Investments is the inaugural recipient of the Innovation and Growth Forum’s Innovation Award for its suite of absolute return funds. The Forum was launched by Financial Advisor Magazine and Spectrem Group to help asset management firms with their post-economic crisis strategies.