Investments

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.

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.

While economic gauges and surveys have been showing an improvement in investor sentiment in recent months, lately, some of the numbers have been faltering.

The U.S. economy has hit its stride, with GDP on track to grow 3% over the next two years, according to a report from TD Economics.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index increased 0.8% in February to 113.4 (2004=100), following a 0.1% increase in January and a 1.0% increase in December. The index is now at an all-time historical high and 16% higher than its most recent trough in March 2009.

Lincoln, who believes the U.S. economy is about midway through a projected five-year bull run, took some time this week with On Wall Street to provide his big-picture views on a number of timely topics as well as a look back at what financial services firms, advisors and investors have learned from the rollercoaster-like ride of the past few years.

The decision will lead to further litigation, as the claimants’ seek to reverse their responsibility for $400,000 in attorneys’ fees.

Nearly every day, I get a notice touting the launch of some new ETF. And at this point, most of them represent some fringe aspect of the investment world. Small-cap stocks from one certain country in the Middle East, say, or a fund from Africa that deals with water infrastructure. Sometimes, they are sliced so thinly that there are just a handful of companies in the underlying index. Useful perhaps, but probably only for a…

Global X Funds on Thursday launched the Global X S&P/TSX Venture 30 Canada ETF, an exchange-traded fund that targets companies on Canada’s junior exchange for emerging companies, the TSX Venture.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is developing a system that will tell its examiners and firms’ compliance officials whether firms that sold munis with material-event disclosures passed that information on to customers.

The global flight from risk continued to bolster the municipal bond market on Wednesday as the prospect of a nuclear meltdown in Japan enhanced the appeal of the shelter of low-risk bonds.

But $193 million leaves equity funds.

Long-term funds took in $4.5 billion in the week ended March 9, the Investment Company Institute said.

Seventy-one percent of financial advisers foresee the greatest investment opportunities in the decade ahead outside of the U.S., a survey of 556 advisers by Franklin Templeton and SourceMedia found.