Investments

Eaton Vance has hired Vincent Leon as director of offshore sales, reporting to John Moninger, managing director, retail sales. Leon hails from 3D Asset Management where he served as national sales manager.

AdvisorShares is launching the AdvisorShares Athena International Bear ETF (HDGI) on July 19. HDGI is subadvised by Greenwood Village, Colo.-based AthenaInvest Advisors.

Bloomfield, Mich.-based Flexible Plan Investments has launched The Gold Bullion Strategy Fund (QGLDX), which the firm is touting as the industry’s first gold bullion fund offered to retail investors through a mutual fund product

Bond funds netted redemptions of $59 billion (excluding exchange-traded funds) last month, according to Strategic Insight.

Alternative mutual fund shop Collins Capital has appointed Casey Wamsley as a director, focusing on both the mutual fund and limited partnership businesses of Collins Capital.

USAA Investments has added two new mutual funds to its lineup.

Morgan Stanley managing director Patrick Haskell has been appointed head of the institutional municipal business, the company announced this week. Haskell will oversee public finance and sales and trading in his new role.

BMO Global Asset Management is expanding its institutional sales and trust and custody units with the addition of Sean Curry as a relationship manager, consultant relations, and Kimberly Palleon as manager for trust and custody services.

Russell Investments has appointed Mark Schlafly as managing director of client solutions for the firm’s U.S. advisor-sold business.

On April 19, three weeks before he said the 30-year bull market in bonds was over, Bill Gross announced he was buying TIPS—Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities.

Two wealth management giants, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo, kicked off the second quarter with record earnings despite market and interest rate volatility.

Investors withdrew $43.8 billion from taxable-bond funds and $16.4 billion from municipal-bond funds, making June the worst month on record for bond funds in terms of total outflows, according to Morningstar.

Global assets under management are set to cross the $70.4 trillion mark by the end of 2013, an increase of $20 trillion from 2008, according to new findings from Cerulli Associates.

U.S. fixed-income mutual funds attracted investor deposits last week, rebounding from redemptions spurred by speculation that the Federal Reserve would scale back its unprecedented stimulus, while bond exchange-traded funds had withdrawals.

Over the past decade, firms offering clients their own investment products increasingly lost ground to those recommending an open architecture array of investment options from outside managers, but there has been a recent resurgence in proprietary management among wealth managers.

A majority of asset managers said the Federal Reserve’s recent decision to slow the pace of its bond buys will lead to higher interest rates in the next three months, according to a quarterly survey of investment managers by Northern Trust.

Mutual fund liquidations have risen within the first six months of 2013 compared to the same period last year.

Municipal bond fund outflows for the week of July 10 rose to $1.2 billion from $870 million the prior week.

Last month, State Street Global Advisors revealed numerous changes meant to modify its core teams in the traditional asset space.

Mutual fund liquidations have risen within the first six months of 2013 compared to the same period last year.