Special Program Root Tag

It looks like iShares isn’t going to be scared off that easily by the BATS Exchanges’s glitch last month.

Principal Funds has added three new regional directors to the firm’s investment only team: Marcel Dawson, Gary Nakamura and Pamela Suing. Each will focus on growth within the registered investment advisor distribution channel.

Investors’ confidence rose during the first quarter of 2012, according to the newly-released John Hancock Investor Sentiment Index.

Market Vectors ETF Trust has launched the International High Yield Bond ETF, which bet on the corporate high-yield bond market.

BlackRock Investments Canada Inc. has appointed Mary Anne Wiley managing director and head of its combined exchange-traded fund business, replacing Som Seif, founder and chief executive of the recently-acquired Claymore Investments, Inc.

The moment was remarkable, if not dramatic.

RiverPark Advisors LLC, a New York-based investment advisory company, has launched the RiverPark Long/Short Opportunity Fund, an open-end mutual fund that was converted from an existing hedge fund launched in October 2009.

Invesco’s shareholders of the Invesco High Income Municipal Fund and the Invesco U.S. Mid Cap Value Fund today approved a plan to merge those funds into the Invesco Van Kampen High Yield Municipal Fund and Invesco Van Kampen American Value Fund.

Aristotle Capital Management, LLC, a registered investment advisor focused primarily on managing separate accounts for institutions and high net-worth investors, has launched its first mutual fund—employing many of the go-anywhere strategies it employs for these high-net clients.

RidgeWorth Investments is closing its Small Cap Value Equity Fund, subadvised by Ceredex Value Advisors LLC to new investors effective April 20.

J.P. Morgan Retirement Plan Services (RPS), the retirement plan record keeping business of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, hired Carol Waddell as managing director and head of product and marketing.

Oaks, Pa.-based SEI, a provider of investment processing, fund processing, and investment management business outsourcing services, has appointed Stephen Beinhacker as Global Head of Equities for SEI's Investment Management Unit.

Stewart Capital Advisors, LLC, the investment advisor for Stewart Capital Mutual Funds, said that it has made the Stewart Capital Mid Cap Fund available as a no-load mutual fund effective April 1.

Investment advisor Matthew Tuttle spends a lot of time moving the money of newly-acquired clients out of mutual funds and into exchanged-traded instruments.

BlackRock Investments Canada Inc., an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of BlackRock, Inc. today said that it will liquidate the Claymore Inverse 10 Yr Government Bond ETF and distribute to shareholders the proceeds from the liquidation of the assets by June 22.

Expanding its relationship with Wellington Management, The Hartford is relocating the headquarters of its mutual funds business to Radnor, Pennsylvania, in a complex where Wellington also has an office. It also plans to hire as many as 50 new sales people to this office, adding to the already existing 100 person force nationwide, to support sales of its funds in the advisor-sold and defined contribution investment only (DCIO) channels. .

Tradewinds Global Investors, a subsidiary of Nuveen Investments, is throwing in the towel on its Global All-Cap Plus Fund.

Henderson Global Investors Inc. has launched an all asset fund aiming at long-term growth of capital with lower volatility through flexible allocation across a wide range of asset classes around the world.

Peter Dorsey has been named the new managing director of institutional sales for TD Ameritrade Institutional, a division of TD Ameritrade, Inc.

Aston Asset Management, LP has promoted Mark Kim to managing director, Southeast region where he will be responsible for external sales. Kim has been with Aston for seven years.