Portfolio

Private-equity firms, the exclusive money managers overseeing $3 trillion worldwide for the wealthiest investors, are discovering a new type of client: ordinary people.

Franklin Templeton is the most recent fund manager to target the growing emerging markets bond fund category with the launch of the Templeton Emerging Markets Bond Fund.

MFS Investment Management has rolled out Class R5 shares for 40 of its US mutual funds. Class R5 shares allow MFS to offer a lower-cost share class option to plan sponsors of—and advisors working with—qualified retirement plans, including 401(k) plans. Class R5 shares, unlike many other share classes, do not pay sub-accounting fees.

Despite their growing optimism, most small and mid-sized business owners are planning to hold off hiring for the next six months.

Los Angeles-based Causeway Capital Management has named Foster Corwith and Alessandro Valentini as portfolio managers. Corwith and Valentini will join Causeway's six current fundamental portfolio managers in managing client portfolios on a team basis.

State Street Global Advisors has joined forces with GSO Capital Partners, the global credit business of The Blackstone Group, to launch the SPDR Blackstone / GSO Senior Loan ETF (SRLN).

When looking to spread the word about mutual funds and other investment strategies to Generation Y Investors, financial services firms should consider new media, according to Cambridge, Mass.-based consulting firm Cogent Research.

Advisors' tech priorities -- and needs -- have shifted dramatically over the last 18 months, says Steven Crosby, head of PricewaterhouseCooper’s U.S. wealth management unit.

Bill Gross’s Pimco Total Return Fund (PTTRX), the world’s largest mutual fund, attracted $32 million in investor deposits in March, the lowest amount since December 2011.

Nationwide Financial has beefed up its mutual fund portfolio by adding 17 new equity and bond funds from HighMark Capital Management worth some $3.6 billion in assets.