Products January 21, 2016

Investment Product and Service Launches

Vanguard reopens money market fund ahead of SEC changes; Wells Fargo offers enhanced pension metrics reporting.
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 Vanguard has reopened the Vanguard Treasury Money Market Fund to all investors.

The firm closed the $9.1 billion fund in January 2009 to “protect existing clients from high levels of cash flow that could potentially dilute the fund’s yield.” Market conditions have since improved, the firm says, and the fund’s board determined that it would be in the best interests of shareholders to reopen the fund.

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Vanguard investors will now have access to two low-cost U.S. government money market funds, the firm explains, after it announced in June that it was reopening its $4.8 billion Federal Money Market Fund to all investors.

The Treasury Money Market Fund invests primarily in U.S. Treasuries, while the Federal Money Market Fund invests primarily in U.S. agency debt. As U.S. government money market funds, both funds provide investors with a stable $1 net asset value (NAV). Moreover, they will not be subject to new liquidity fee or redemption gate requirements under rules adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2014 (taking effect later this year). 

NEXT: Wells Fargo offers enhanced pension metrics reporting

Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust is offering enhanced reporting capabilities that will connect its defined benefit discretionary asset management clients to a new pension metrics system, offering daily portfolio monitoring and management of a pension plan’s dynamic glide path.

This will give investment managers the opportunity to help handle portfolio shifts on a daily basis when certain financial market trigger dynamics are met.

Traditionally, providers generate a paper-bound asset and liability study for clients as the key outcome of asset/liability analysis process. The pension metrics system will give Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust the flexibility to offer clients live modeling updates by changing assumptions and other factors, generating a living document that matches today’s volatile investment climate.

“The ability to know the funded status of our clients’ plans on a daily basis will be ever more important as we move into a rising interest rate environment,” says Tom Hooley, managing director of Institutional Asset Advisors at Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust. “As rates rise, we will be able to immediately see the impact on our clients’ plans and make the necessary change to investment strategies.”

Portfolio managers will be able to walk sponsors through a dashboard of assets, liabilities, funded status and potential risk measures, as well as model interest rate and portfolio sensitivities and provide what-if scenario analysis of portfolio changes. Multi-year monitoring and forecasting trends and variation in funded status, accounting expense, contributions and balance sheet impact will also be part of the enhanced pension reporting.

Other key benefits, according to Wells Fargo, include:

  • Increased efficiency and productivity, freeing up more time for consultation;
  • On-demand desktop analysis, allowing for more  sophisticated investment discussions with clients;
  • Greater volume of data, leading to more informed decisions and better results; and
  • Timely advantages in light of interest rate volatility environment expected in future quarters.
Break from the Grind January 21, 2016

A Little Friday File Fun

Reported by

In Argentina, a tourist from Brazil stopped to get gas then drove off. After travelling 96 kilometers (about 50 miles), he realized he forgot something—his wife. Apparently, while he was pumping gas, his wife, who was asleep in the back seat, awoke and went into the store to get a snack.

In the UK, a concerned parent posted online a note from her child’s teacher encouraging parents to teach their children to learn the spelling of six words. The words, as listed on the note, were “accommodate,” “immediateley,” “communicate,” “physical,” “equip,” and “sincerley.”

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In LaPorte, Indiana, a man, who news reports say was into.xicated, pulled up to a McDonald’s drive-through and ordered meals for himself and his passengers. When he pulled up the window to pay, he gave the cashier some money and a plastic bag. The employee noticed that the plastic bag contained a dark, rocky substance and called police. The substance turned out to be her.oin. Police are looking for the customer.

In Laverton, Western Australia, thieves attempted to siphon gas from a tour bus, but the evidence they left revealed they took away something different. According to the UK’s The Mirror, the tour bus was found with a cap on the ground, but it was to the bus sewage tank, not the gas tank. Laverton Police Senior Sergeant Heath Soutar said, “We can infer they beat a very hasty retreat, with a somewhat bitter taste in their mouth.”

In Wiltshire, England, a woman called 999 to report she was trapped in her house by a large, poisonous spider. According to the Associated Press, the woman told the 999 operator that she had recently had furniture delivered to her home from overseas and thought the spider had traveled to her home with it. An officer was sent to investigate, and discovered the “spider” actually was a piece of fluff.

Winter life hacks.

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How to take off your kid’s boots with one hand.

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The violin can sound very much like car, and other, alarms.

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