Products February 16, 2017

Investment Products and Services Launches

Nuveen launches investment trust portfolio, and Wilshire Associates releases ESG-weighted index.
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Nuveen Launches Investment Trust Portfolio

Nuveen’s Dynamic Allocation 60/40 Unit Investment Trust Portfolio will seek to provide regular monthly income and capital appreciation by investing in a specially designed portfolio comprised of 60% dividend-paying stocks and 40% fixed-income exchange-traded funds (ETF).

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Nuveen says its portfolio consultant team will focus on diversifying across low-correlated asset classes to better endure market volatility and smooth out returns, while still capturing much of the return of an all-stock portfolio.

More information about the Nuveen Dynamic Allocation 60/40 Portfolio is available by clicking here.

NEXT: Wilshire Associates Releases ESG-Weighted Index

Wilshire Associates Releases ESG-Weighted Index

Wilshire Associates has launched the OWLshares ESG-Weighted U.S. Large Cap Index. Created and owned by New Millennium Macro and calculated by Wilshire, the index is designed to provide a large U.S. market capitalization benchmark for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing.

It leverages proprietary OWL ESG scores to weight the performance of a group of approximately 500 U.S. large market capitalization companies, diversified by sector. The proprietary methodology over-weights companies with higher OWL ESG scores and underweights those with lower scores.

“Wilshire Analytics is proud to help bring to market yet another Powered by Wilshire index offering, this time from best-of-breed ESG analytics provider, OWLshares,” says Robert J. Waid, managing director at Wilshire Associates. “Wilshire’s calculation and analytical expertise combined with OWLshares’ growing suite of innovative, proprietary systematic indexes demonstrates the value of a Powered by Wilshire approach which can help fuel new client-driven investment benchmark strategy ideas and bring them to market quickly.”

Data and Research February 16, 2017

Trusted DC Providers Can Gain and Maintain Participant Assets

A new Spectrem Group report finds 43% of DC plan participants would consider transferring outside assets to the provider if they were aware of the providers’ full range of asset management capabilities, fees, etc.
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Even though nearly four in 10 (38%) of defined contribution (DC) plan participants feel they don’t have enough assets outside their DC plan to warrant having an adviser, and more than one-quarter (28%) say they cannot afford a financial adviser, only 18% of current plan participants have entrusted their plan provider with outside assets.

According to a new Spectrem Group report, Advisor Usage Among DC Plan Participants, “In many cases, this is simply a matter of poor communication, as more than four out of ten (43 percent) plan participants would consider transferring outside assets to the provider if they were aware of the providers’ full range of asset management capabilities, fees, etc.”

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As for keeping DC assets after participants leave a plan, 51% of plan participants whose plan provider currently manages a portion of their outside assets would consider moving their DC assets to an IRA with their provider.

The study found the motivation for moving outside assets or DC plan assets to the provider varies. Among women, the most important criteria for moving assets to their DC provider is a feeling of trust, security and safety. Among men, investment performance drives their decision making. Providers who tailor their communications to address these expectations are likely to have the greatest success retaining and gaining DC participants’ assets.

This report is based on a survey of 866 401(k), 403(b), and 457 plan participants who have a household net worth of at least $100,000.

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