Portfolio

Pioneer Investments Friday announced the launch of two new funds, the Pioneer Absolute Return Credit Fund and the Pioneer Multi-Asset Floating Rate Fund.

To give its 3,000-plus independent advisors an edge, Fidelity Investments introduced the Business Development and Marketing Planning Toolkit, an interactive PDF that advisors, firms and advisor teams can use to better define themselves, identify exactly the type of clients they want to attract and retain and, perhaps most important, ensure their customers know enough about them and their services to provide a meaningful referral to potential new clients.

Each firm’s respective products will continue under their own brand names.

In what marks the largest outflow activity so far this year, tax-exempt money market funds lost a hefty $5.17 billion and total net assets fell to $306.93 billion for the week ended April 25, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

HSBC Global Asset Management has launched two emerging market debt funds. The HSBC Emerging Markets Debt Fund will invest in fixed income issued in emerging markets, and the HSBC Emerging Markets Local Debt Fund will invest in fixed income issued in emerging markets denominated in local currencies.

U.S. Bancorp expects significant long-term growth from its wealth management business over the next three to five years as it looks to reap the benefits from an aggressive four-year strategy to transform the business.

An uptick in mergers and acquisition among investment advisory firms at the end of last year suggests that the pace will increase, according to a study by Pershing Advisor Solutions, a unit of BNY Mellon. However, there were fewer deals, and they took longer to complete in last year, compared to the peak in 2007.

“Clearly, a lot of the same fundamental, structural changes to the industry continue to drive M&A,” says David DeVoe, managing director of strategic business development for Schwab Advisor Services.