Portfolio

Several years ago, Grant Rawdin passed on the chance to become a charter shareholder in National Advisors Trust, a trust company owned by a registered investment adviser and designed to serve advisers nationwide.

The portfolios are broadly diversified and aim to reduce risk.

While corporations, consumers and governments are trying to get back on their feet following the global recession, continued volatility is pushing investors, especially high-net-worth investors, to pour their money into alternatives, which allow for broader diversification, said Gurinder Ahluwalia, president of Genworth Financial Wealth Management, at a media roundtable on diversification and new asset classes in New York City on Tuesday.

Charles Schwab has launched the Windhaven Portfolios, three broadly diversified separately managed accounts based on the assets and intellectual property of Windward Investment Management that Schwab acquired in November 2010.

Prudential Investments has launched two new real estate funds, the Prudential U.S. Real Estate and the Prudential International Real Estate funds, complementing the existing Prudential Global Real Estate and Prudential Real Assets funds.

Virtus Investment Partners has launched three new funds: the Virtus Allocator Premium AlphaSector, the Virtus Global Premium AlphaSector and the Virtus Global Commodities Stock funds.

The new offering will integrate absolute return funds that seek positive returns over a three-year period with less volatility than traditional asset classes.

Alternative investment funds which need to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the first time will find it a costly process, according to research firm Aite Group.

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Risk managers appear to be warily optimistic about the U.S. economic recovery, the latest reading of the Risk Index from The Global Association of Risk Professionals shows.