Portfolio

Advanced Group Investments, a provider of global investment strategies in real estate, commodities, stocks and bonds, has launched a new social networking site for investors called AGI Club.

John Hancock Funds has launched the Technical Opportunities Fund, a diversified stock fund that is structured to allow the subadviser, Wellington Management, to invest up to 100% of the portfolio in cash if necessary. The fund is intended to provide a specialty strategy for retail portfolios.

Global investment management firm PIMCO has launched the PIMCO 1-5 Year U.S. TIPS Index Fund, a combination of three Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities exchanged-traded funds designed to focus on the short maturity segment of the TIPS market.

MetLife's Broker-Dealer Group has introduced MetLife Fund Management Services, an investment advisory solution targeted at emerging investors.

Edward Jones has adopted Delta Data's FUNDViews service to manage and maintain operational rule changes within its mutual fund security master tables in its brokerage platform.

UMB Financial Corp. is installing Advantage Fee software from Fiserv Inc. to streamline billing activities in its investment management units, Fiserv said.

A former UBS banker who cooperated with the U.S. investigation of the Swiss bank was sentenced to over three years in jail for helping a billionaire real estate developer evade $7.2 million in taxes.

The Securities and Exchange Commission needs to undertake a “comprehensive, independent, zero-based regulatory review” of a broad range of market structure issues before “piecemeal changes to the current market structure” exacerbate potential execution unfairness and make matters worse, says U.S. Sen. Edward E. Kaufman (D-Del.).

Fidelity Investment's timely staff cuts and careful positioning of its financial service units is paying off this year and contributing to market share gains, according to the fund giant.

Sales and national accounts professionals saw average compensation losses ranging from 10% to 30% in 2008, but with smart management, top producers will be well-positioned for a recovery in 2010, according to a new study by kasina.