Products December 1, 2010

Principal Creates Adviser App

The Principal Financial Group has introduced the Principal Advisor Compensation Application to provide direct access to a consolidated and summarized view of compensation statements.
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A news release said the application lets advisers access current and prior compensation statement summaries, view compensation paid by product line and monitor year-to-date earnings directly from a mobile device.

For those who prefer text messaging or email, advisers can sign up for compensation alerts that provide estimated gross compensation information through their mobile phones or e-mail accounts. 

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“Advisers are where their clients are – they don’t operate their businesses from their desks. We’ve designed a number of new mobile applications to give advisers the information they want, when they want it and how they want it,” said Gary Scholten, senior vice president and chief information officer at The Principal, in the news release. “Advisers are more important to people’s financial security today, and we’re committed to helping advisers save time and operate their businesses more efficiently and effectively. That’s more critical in today’s 24/7 global world than ever before.”

The mobile compensation application is available to all agents and advisers who receive compensation statements from The Principal– an estimated 32,000 career and outside advisers. The text messaging service is available to career producers of The Principal. 

The Markets December 1, 2010

MSCI Launches New Indexes for Developed Markets

MSCI Inc. launched the MSCI Micro Cap Indices for all Developed Markets countries and regions covered by MSCI.
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A press release said the MSCI Micro Cap Indices add 4,862 new securities to what’s covered by the MSCI Global Equity Indices, led by constituents from Japan (1,318 securities) and the U.S. (964 securities). The indexes include companies with market capitalizations as low as $29.5 million.   

In conjunction with the MSCI Micro Cap Indices, MSCI is also launching the MSCI All Cap Indices, which aim to provide comprehensive coverage of all capitalization segments and approximately 99.8% of the Developed Markets equity universe.  

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Both the MSCI Micro Cap Indices and the MSCI All Cap Indices follow the principles of the MSCI Global Investable Market Indices Methodology and are constructed with a focus on data quality, and index transparency and consistency across all size segments and geographies, the announcement said.   

MSCI also announced it has extended its Frontier Markets universe to include small cap coverage. The new MSCI Frontier Markets Small Cap Indices cover 26 countries and 242 securities.   

Performance data for all the new indexes will be available on http://www.msci.com at market close on Wednesday, and will be included in the applicable end of day index products for MSCI index clients.

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