In Practice January 17, 2007

Putnam and The Hartford Get High Marks From DALBAR

DALBAR released Wednesday its annual ranking of top customer service providers in the financial intermediary, mutual fund, broker/dealer, annuities, life insurance and retirement plan provider industry.
Reported by

Putnam ranked at the top of the research and consulting firm’s list for customer service provided to professionals who advise investors both post-sale and pre-sale. In the post-sale category, Putnam was followed by Goldman Sachs, Seligman Funds, BlackRock, The Individual Life Division of the Hartford, 1st Global, Pacific Life, Transamerica Capital, Evergreen Investments, RiverSource, Sun Life Financial, and Genworth Financial.

In the pre-sale financial intermediary category, Putnam was followed by JPMorgan Funds, Evergreen Investments, PLANCO (Hartford Director, Hartford Leaders, Hartford Mutual Funds) and Genworth Financial.

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The Hartford was the single provider to earn an award for retirement plan service to consumers.

Putnam Investments ranked at the top of mutual fund providers, an accolade it has already received 15 times, followed by Seligman Funds, Evergreen Investments, BlackRock, Transamerica/IDEX and JPMorgan Funds.

In terms of annuities providers, The Hartford Life came out on top, followed by Putnam Investments, New York Life-MainStay Annuities, Guardian Insurance & Annuity Company, and Prudential Financial.

For life insurance providers, The Individual Life Division of The Hartford was the only firm to meet DALBAR’s criteria for insurance providers.

DALBAR gives the service awards based on systematic testing of how financial companies respond to the needs for service from their customers over the year. Companies that exceed a variety of industry benchmarks after one year of testing earn the DALBAR Service Award, the firm said.

Products January 17, 2007

Vanguard Edges into Bond ETF Market

Vanguard is adding exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which will be structured as separate share classes of existing mutual funds, to its four existing bond index funds in an effort to expand its presence in the U.S. bond market.
Reported by

According to a press release from the mutual fund company, the firm’s four bond funds include the Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund, the Vanguard Short-Term Bond Index Fund, the Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index Fund, and the Vanguard Long-Term Bond Index Fund.

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The four bond ETFs will provide investors with exposure to the entire U.S. bond market at a cost of 0.11% and will be managed by Vanguard’s fixed income group, according to the release.

Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF will be a share class of the Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund, which tracks the performance of the market-weighted Lehman Brothers Aggregate Bond Index and holds nearly 2,800 corporate, Treasury, agency, and mortgage securities.

The other three ETFs are as follows:

  • Vanguard Short-Term Bond tracks the Lehman Brothers 1-5 year Government/Credit Index

  • Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond ETF tracks the Lehman Brothers 5-10 year Government/Credit Index

  • Vanguard Long-Term Bond ETF tracks the Lehman Brothers Long Government/Credit Index

Vanguard’s ability to offer bond ETFs is pending approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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