Products June 27, 2007

ConvergEx Launches Transaction Cost Analysis Platform

June 27, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - BNY ConvergEx Group, LLC, a provider of global agency brokerage and investment technology solutions, has launched Perform-Ex, a Web-based performance measurement, monitoring and management platform for transaction cost analysis.
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A ConvergEx news release said a combination of pre-trade, intra-trade and post-trade Web-based analytics enables Perform-Ex users to make informed trading decisions and precisely measure results.

Pre-trade analytics provide users with critical information for selecting trading strategies and scheduling trades, while Intra-trade analytics give clients the ability to monitor real-time performance and executions for orders routed to ConvergEx algorithms. Intra-day views also keep clients informed about trading progress and any problem trades so they can intervene when necessary, according to the release.

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Post-trade analytics allow clients to aggregate order data into a variety of useful categories. Users can pull individual trade records or group orders by size, market capitalization, and %ADV categories among others.

Joseph M. Velli, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BNY ConvergEx Group, stated in the release, “As execution strategies become more complex and execution options grow in number, advanced, effective trade quality measurement tools become crucial to determining optimal trading strategies.”

Perform-Ex is the latest addition to ConvergEx’s recently launched suite of liquidity management technologies (See Liquidity Management Suite Launches ).

More information is at www.bnyconvergex.com .

Products June 26, 2007

MainStay to Launch Target Date Funds

June 26, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - New York Life Investment Management (NYLIM) has announced the creation of the MainStay Retirement Funds, a series of funds for target retirement dates of 2010, 2020, 2030, 2040 and 2050.
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In addition to its own proprietary funds, MainStay portfolio managers will have access to unaffiliated managers to provide broader diversification of assets within the funds, according to the announcement.   Because of the non-proprietary allocation, MainStay Retirement Funds may include sub-sectors that many peer funds do not utilize such as commodities, real estate investment trusts (REITS), treasury inflation protected securities (TIPS), and market neutral strategies.

Each MainStay Retirement Fund glide path also includes allocations to multiple sectors within U.S. and international equity and fixed-income. The series will also have greater flexibility to respond to future market environments because the funds will not be tied to a static mix of underlying asset class weightings, the announcement said.

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In addition, the MainStay Retirement Funds will have a higher total equity allocation than most available target date retirement funds, which could include the recently announced MainStay130/30 funds (See MainStay Unveils Three 130/30 Fund Offerings ).

“With the option to incorporate sophisticated institutional investment strategies into target date allocations – and with the ability to tap non-proprietary expertise – we’ve structured the funds to be flexible, diversified and to seek superior performance. This target date series is not only built to last, but to perform their job in an uncertain, long-term market environment,” said Tony Elavia, senior managing director and chief investment officer of NYLIM’s Equity Investors Group, and lead portfolio manager of the MainStay Retirement Funds, in the announcement.

During a recent PLANSPONSOR PLUGGED IN Webcast, Anne Lester, Senior Portfolio Manager at JPMorgan Global Multi-Asset Group, introduced research which showed diversification of assets within lifecycle funds was key to maximizing participants’ income replacement in retirement (See Feature: Special Supplement: Target-Date/Risk-Based Fund Guide: When You Assume ).

Webcast materials also include a link to PLANSPONSOR’s Lifestyle/Lifecycle Funds Buyer’s Guide (See When You Assume – Webcast Materials ).

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