Portfolio

Lazard Asset Management has launched two new fixed income funds, the Lazard Emerging Markets Debt Portfolio and the Lazard U.S. Municipal Portfolio.

Loomis Sayles has launched the Loomis Sayles Absolute Strategies Bond Fund, which Natixis Global Advisors will distribute in the U.K. and Europe.

The fund will invest in money market and investment-grade debt.

Tax-exempt money market funds saw modest inflows of $639.9 million in the week ended March 7, increasing total net assets to $323.67 billion, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

The fund will invest in money market and investment-grade debt.

Lincoln Financial Group is recommending that workers use the 2% reduction in Social Security tax as additional retirement savings. It joins the company of The Hartford and ING which have made similar recommendations.

The campaign showcases three of the firm’s top-performing funds.

Variable annuities with guaranteed living benefit riders surged up 78% in the past two years to more than $521 billion in the fourth quarter of this year, according to a new LIMRA report charting the sales prowess of more than 95% of the variable annuity sector.

U.S. investors have warmed to exchange-traded funds in a big way over the past five years and their growing familiarity with the expanding variety of products available helped pushed the total value of U.S. ETF assets over the $1 trillion mark last month, according to a report from State Street Global Advisors.

According to PIMCO, consultants said that active management makes the most sense for all asset classes, except large-cap U.S. equities.