Mutual funds

Thirty years ago,Russell Investments changed the landscape of how fund firms could evaluate managerial performance, by launching broad benchmarks of stock performance in the United States.

In the three years since the financial crisis hit, investors have remained cautious, but their tolerance for risk has actually held steady, the Investment Company Institute said Thursday.

Long-term mutual funds had total outflows of $10.95 billion in the week ended Oct. 5, the Investment Company Institute said. This was up substantially from the $5.68 billion of outflows in the previous week ended Sept. 28.

Investors withdrew $5 billion from U.S. stock and bond long-term funds in September, Strategic Insight reports.

Gemini Fund Services is expanding its portfolio, building out its Northern Lights Fund Trust I shared mutual fund trust with the addition of three new funds from Ascendant Advisors.

While the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 14.3% in the third quarter, many mutual fund categories performed worse, according to Lipper.

BlackRock has launched three mutual funds that invest in alternative investments, the BlackRock Commodity Strategies, BlackRock Emerging Markets Long/Short and BlackRock Global Long/Short Credit funds.

Investors have pulled nearly $80 billion this year out of mutual funds that invest in U.S. stocks. That's the tally after investors yanked $5.5 billion from all types of mutual funds in the last week of September.

While the boards of directors of mutual funds are not responsible for managing risk, they still have a key role to play in overseeing investment and operational risks, according to a white paper just released by the Investment Company Institute and Independent Board of Directors.

Litman Gregory Fund Advisors has launched the Litman Gregory Masters Alternative Strategies Fund, a multi-manager, multi-strategy fund that offers investors diversified exposure to absolute return-oriented strategies.

Russell Investments has launched four additional investment discipline exchange-traded funds, the new offerings focused on small-cap indexes. Russell’s investment discipline indexes take indexing to the next level by aiming to mirror the way equity managers invest.

Brown Advisory has launched the Brown Advisory Tactical Bond Fund, a fund focused on total return that, using a quantitative modeling process to track macro movements in bond sectors, will invest in fixed income—including tax-exempt municipal bonds, corporate bonds, U.S. Treasury bonds, Treasury inflation protected securities and cash equivalents.

On the heels of the success of its Keeley Small Cap Dividend Value Fund, Keeley Asset Management has launched the Keeley Mid Cap Dividend Fund.

Touchstone Investments and Old Mutual Asset Management have entered into an agreement whereby Touchstone will acquire the U.S. mutual fund business of Old Mutual, bringing Touchstone’s assets to nearly $10 billion. The deal will also add several new sub-advisors to Touchstone’s roster of fund managers.

The TCW Group has launched the MetWest Unconstrained Bond Fund, a mutual fund with the flexibility to invest across a wide array of global fixed income sectors.

Putnam Investments has launched the Putnam Dynamic Risk Allocation Fund, a ’40 Act mutual fund that uses the “risk parity” approach of its successful Putnam Total Return portfolio for institutional investors, which has delivered average annual returns of 9% since inception five years ago.

Eaton Vance and Richard Bernstein Advisors have launched the Eaton Vance Richard Bernstein All Asset Strategy Fund, with Richard Bernstein, CEO and CIO of the eponymous firm serving as manager of the fund.

DoubleLine Funds Trust has launched the DoubleLine Low Duration Bond Fund.

HSBC Global Asset Management has launched the HSBC Frontier Markets Fund, whose aim is long-term capital appreciation by investing in companies located in or economically tied to frontier market countries. These include such nations as Argentina, Qatar Bangladesh, Kenya, Kazakhstan and Vietnam. The fund will track the Morgan Stanley Capital International Frontier Emerging Markets Index.

Loomis Sayles has launched the Loomis Sayles Senior Floating Rate and Fixed Income Fund, aimed at navigating changing economic cycles by taking a flexible approach to investing in bank loans and other credit instruments.