Mutual funds

Starting in January 2014, 51% of retirement plan sponsors will change their investment lineups, paving the way for more mutual funds to fill their needs, according to a Cogent Research study.

Smead Capital Management has announced that its Smead Value Fund (SMVLX, SMVMX) recently gathered $100 million on its way to $400 million in assets under management, as a result of partnerships with RIA’s and brokerage firms.

Highland Capital Management has hired six regional sales directors in the Pacific Northwest, Florida, North Texas, Long Island, the Midwest and Southeast, and expanded its sales team at its home office in Dallas.

M.D. Sass is looking to build out its fledgling mutual fund family with the launch of the M.D. Sass Equity Income Plus Fund (MDEIX, MDEPX), which bets on a diversified portfolio of dividend paying common stocks.

Blackstone Group, the world’s biggest manager of alternative assets, is starting a mutual fund that will invest in hedge funds, part of an industrywide push to attract assets from individual investors.

Citi has been appointed by Mirae Asset Global Investments to provide fund administration, custody and index receipt services for a new exchange-traded fund platform in the U.S. under the Horizons brand.

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

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

Exchange-traded funds that made bets on the gold sector were punished in the first half of the year with poor returns and redemptions amid a two-year low in price for the precious metal.

Exchange-traded fund risks and the use of ETFs in portfolio construction were ranked as the top two topics that advisors understood the best, according to new findings from Cerulli Associates.

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.

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.

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.