Products July 9, 2008

PIMCO Announces Bond Fund 'Un-tethered' from Benchmark

PIMCO announced the launch of the PIMCO Unconstrained Bond Fund (UBF), which uses the firm's investment process and is not tethered to benchmark-specific guidelines.
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The UBF is managed by PIMCO Managing Director and Portfolio Manager Chris Dialynas. The ticker symbol for the fund is PFIUX, according to the company.

Benefits of the UBF for investors include:

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  • Traditional characteristics of a core bond fund such as limited downside risk, low correlation with equities, liquidity and diversification;
  • Potential to outperform traditional active fixed-income management approaches where the manager may be expected to limit tracking error relative to a benchmark;
  • May invest in derivative instruments such as options, futures contracts, or swap agreements;
  • May invest in mortgage and asset-backed securities;
  • May invest in securities denominated in foreign currencies;
  • Up to 50% of assets of the UBF can be invested in securities and instruments economically tied to emerging market countries; and
  • Up to 40% of assets of the UBF can be invested in high yield corporate bonds.

“The underlying strategy of the UBF provides greater scope to adjust duration exposure, allocate across sectors, express our active views, and tap into our global fixed income toolkit beyond what is possible with benchmark-oriented funds,” said Dialynas, in a company announcement.

More information is available at www.pimco.com.

Data & Research July 9, 2008

Preferred Retirement Activities Differ by Gender

If men and women pursue their dreams, they will be spending plenty of time apart during their years in retirement.
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“Taking care of things around the house and yard’ beat “spending time with grandkids or other family members’ as the main focus for retired males responding to a survey. However, spending time with grandchildren and other family members was the top priority for retired women, according to a press release from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.

The national survey of 800 American adults age 60 to 74 conducted for Thrivent found that overall the main retirement focus for retired males included:

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  • Taking care of things around the house and yard (28%);
  • Spending time with grandchildren or other family members (26%);
  • Enjoying things like playing golf, shopping, going out with friends (18%);
  • Pursuing hobbies (12%);
  • Volunteering in the community (7%); and
  • Watching where your money goes, clipping grocery coupons, etc. (6%).

The main retirement focus for retired females included:

  • Spending time with grandchildren or other family members (36%);
  • Taking care of things around the house and yard (25%);
  • Enjoying things like playing golf, shopping, going out with friends (16%);
  • Pursuing hobbies (8%);
  • Watching where your money goes, clipping grocery coupons, etc. (7%); and
  • Volunteering in the community (3%).

Interestingly, the survey found that as retired males’ incomes increase, their focus on taking care of the house and yard diminishes from 43% to 17%, and as retired females’ incomes increase, their focus on taking care of the house and yard increases from 24% to 32%. Retirees of both genders having incomes of $40,000-$79,999 are most apt to cite spending time with grandchildren or other family members as their main focus in retirement (34% of males and 42% of females).

Data for the survey was collected via telephone interviews by the Discovery Research Group on behalf of Action Marketing Research between December 1 and 13, 2007, among a nationwide cross section of 800 U.S. adults age 60 to 74 of whom 397 were men and 403 were women. Sixty-four percent of respondents indicated that they are retired, 16% identified themselves as partly retired, and 20% considered themselves not retired.

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