Products March 26, 2008

Schwab Expands Managed Account Services Platform

Charles Schwab has enhanced its managed account platform to assist independent investment advisers who choose to outsource functions such as money manager research and portfolio construction.
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As part of this effort, according to a company announcement, Schwab Institutional has recently formed new and expanded relationships with three firms that provide investment products and back-office services to advisers. In addition, Schwab has grown its own managed account program, including expanding the selection of available strategies and introducing a multi-strategy portfolio.

The new and expanded relationships to offer a variety of products and services to advisers who custody assets with Schwab Institutional are:

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  • An expanded relationship with Envestnet Asset Management to include a full product line-up of unified managed accounts (UMAs), multi-manager accounts, mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) wrap products, and separately managed accounts (SMAs).
  • A new relationship with FundQuest Incorporated to offer a full product line-up of UMAs, multi-strategy products (MSPs), mutual fund, and ETF wrap products, and SMAs.
  • A new relationship with Morningstar Investment Services, Inc., to offer its line of actively managed mutual fund, stock, and ETF portfolios (See Morningstar Portfolio Management Services Available on Schwab Platform).

Envestnet, FundQuest and Morningstar Investment Services provide a range of back-office services to advisers, including client management (client profiling and proposal generation), investment management (portfolio construction, manager research and rebalancing), performance monitoring (reconciliation and reporting), and operations (billing and compliance tools.) Schwab now has 18 providers on its turnkey asset management provider (TAMP) platform.

In addition to new third-party relationships, Schwab has enhanced its Managed Account Select and Managed Account Access bundled programs to provide access to more than 230 investment strategies from more than 75 money managers, including the 15 largest separate account managers in the industry. Both Managed Account Select and Managed Account Access include the benefits of streamlined administration, pre-negotiated fees, and minimums as low as $100,000.

More information is available at www.schwabinstitutional.com.

FundQuest Offering

In a separate announcement, FundQuest said it has launched Institutional Spectrum, a comprehensive managed accounts platform which is available exclusively to independent registered investment advisers (RIAs), trust companies, and banks working with Schwab Institutional.

The Institutional Spectrum platform provides independent RIAs with eight different managed account options including: Advisor Managed Accounts (mutual funds, ETFs, SMAs, general securities), FundQuest Unified Managed Accounts, FundQuest Separately Managed Account models, FundQuest Mutual Fund models, FundQuest Index Enhanced Portfolios, FundQuest Income Portfolios, Russell Mutual Fund Model Strategies, and Russell LifePoints Funds.

More information is available at www.fundquest.com/usa.

The Markets March 26, 2008

FTSE Launches New Terror-Free Index Series

The FTSE Group and Conflict Securities Advisory Group (CSAG), a research provider in terror-free investment screening and certification services, have launched the FTSE CSAG Terror-Free Index Series.
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According to a news release, the new offering is based on the FTSE Global Equity Index Series and will begin disseminating on March 31. The announcement said the new offering was developed in response to exclusion requirements being adopted by U.S. state governments, public and private organizations and investor demand.

Nineteen US states, including New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Missouri and Louisiana have proposed or enacted legislation requiring state plan sponsors to divest from international companies with active business ties to terror-sponsoring countries.

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The news release said by applying CSAG’s screening process to FTSE’s All-World ex-US, FTSE All-World Developed ex-US, and FTSE All-World Emerging ex-US indexes, the FTSE CSAG Terror-Free indexes screen out companies with active or current non-humanitarian business ties in or with countries that expose them to global security risk, including Iran, Sudan, Syria and/or North Korea.

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