Fund Briefs for Week of October 13, 2006

Putnam Small Cap Value Equity Managed Account has been selected by Merrill Lynch’s Global Private Client Investment Management & Guidance for inclusion in the financial services firm’s separately managed account (SMA) platform called “Merrill Lynch Consults. The portfolio team includes portfolio leader James Polk and Edward T. Shadek, who is deputy head of investments for small-cap equities.

Fred Alger Management plans to launch the Spectra Green Fund. The fund will be dedicated to investing in growth companies that are contributing to more sustainable and environmentally beneficial businesses. Alger said it expects to invest $5 million of its capital in the new fund, which will be managed by Christopher Walsh and Fauzia Rashid.

Progressive Asset Management (PAM) is launching Progressive Track Investments, a portfolio suite that is both socially screened and tracks existing benchmark indexes for most major asset classes. The seven portfolios are screened on social and environmental grounds by Progressive Asset Management and then optimized by Sausalito, CA-based Aperio Group, which uses factor-modeling techniques to replicate index benchmark performance.

Benchmark Asset Managers has created the Benchmark Collaborative Index, a new socially screened index designed to replicate the performance of the Standard & Poor’s 500 while reflecting the values and beliefs of Catholic investors, according to a press release. Research and analytics for the index is from IW Financial. In addition, Benchmark is introducing the Catholic Social Values Portfolio, a separate account based on the Collaborative Index.

Franklin Templeton Investments has introduced the Templeton Emerging Markets Small Cap Fund. The fund’s lead manager is Dr. Mark Mobius, along with Dennis Lim and Tom Wu. The fund will invest a minimum of 80% of its net assets in securities of small-cap companies located in emerging market countries.

Legg Mason, Inc., has announced new names for the investment management portfolios offered by its Separately Managed Account (SMA) business, which was acquired as part of the transaction in which it acquired substantially all of the worldwide asset management businesses of Citigroup, which closed in December of 2005. (Equity SMA portfolios take the ClearBridge name; most fixed-income SMA portfolios take the name of Western Asset; and Multiple Discipline Accounts, Balanced Portfolios, and Custom Portfolios take the Legg Mason name because they may take advantage of the investment capabilities of several Legg Mason investment managers.)

Van Kampen Funds Inc. has launched the Van Kampen Asset Allocation Funds, a series of target risk open-end mutual funds: Van Kampen Asset Allocation Conservative Fund, Van Kampen Asset Allocation Moderate Fund, and Van Kampen Asset Allocation Growth Fund. The Funds, each a fund of mutual funds, are portfolios of individual Van Kampen Funds spanning multiple asset classes and investment styles