Investment Products and Services Launches

The Symons Concentrated Small Cap Value Institutional Fund (SCSVX) is an extension of the Symons Concentrated Small Cap Value composite. SCSVX will purchase stocks with market capitalizations of less than $3 billion and will hold fewer than 20 stocks across a broad sector allocation.

“As part of designing this strategy, and in an ever-changing environment where fees are being compressed, we wanted to create a fund whereby we believe there will be great demand in the small value asset class” says Michael P. Czajka, CEO of Symons Capital Management. “In particular, with the lack of available capacity in the small cap value space coupled with a good process and a clear differentiation from our peers, I truly believe this will be the strategy that makes Symons Capital Management a nationally known firm, side-by-side with some of the other great small cap value investment firms.”

Symons Capital Management’s portfolio manager and investment research team aims for long-term absolute returns and relative returns above benchmarks, with a focus on risk-management and downside protection over a full-market cycle.

“The small cap sector is an area where we believe our independent macro, quantitative and qualitative equity research can be used to good advantage to achieve long-term wealth accumulation,” says Czajka. “Typically, there is less published research available on such companies, which makes this a perfect strategy for us. I believe this strategy will be very successful not only with investment management consultants, but even more so with registered investment advisers who create asset allocation models utilizing mutual funds rather than ETF’s or index funds in this asset class.”

NEXT: Pantheon Targets DC Plans for Private Equity Strategies

The performance pricing option applies to the part of the portfolio invested in private equity and it’s accrued only when the performance of the private assets in the portfolio beats its benchmark, which is the S&P 500. Generally speaking, the firm says investors don’t pay for performance they did not experience.

“The innovative fee solution we are announcing today visibly aligns investors’ interests with Pantheon’s, addresses core plan sponsor concerns including costs and potential litigation, and it demonstrates the confidence we have in our ability to deliver strong returns to our investors,” says Kevin Albert, managing director at Pantheon.

For more information, visit Pantheon.com.

NEXT: John Hancock Overhauls TDF Suite

The John Hancock Multimanager Lifetime Portfolios, formerly known as John Hancock Retirement Living Portfolios, are designed to help manage longevity risk by following a glide path that begins with 95% equity exposure before gradually decreasing to 50% at the target retirement date. It then continues scaling down through the first 20 years of retirement until stabilizing at 25%. The portfolio management team implements the asset allocation strategy with a combination of active open-end mutual funds and other investments, tapping nearly 20 specialized teams.

The John Hancock Multi-Index Lifetime Portfolios, formerly known as John Hancock Retirement Living II Portfolios, are also designed to help manage longevity risk and follow the same lifetime glide path. Managers implement the asset allocation strategy with a combination of index-tracking exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other investments to minimize the impact of expenses on portfolio returns. 

John Hancock Multi-Index Preservation Portfolios are designed for investors who want to minimize risk in the years leading up to retirement. Glide paths begin at 82% equity exposure which decreases to and stabilizes at eight percent upon reaching the target retirement date. John Hancock Asset Management implements the asset allocation strategy with a combination of index-tracking ETFs and other investments to minimize the impact of expenses on portfolio returns.

For more information, visit jhinvestments.com/targetdate.

NEXT: Vanguard Lowers Expense Ratios on 21 Fund Shares

Vanguard Lowers Expense Ratios on 21 Fund Shares

The financial services firm Vanguard says its clients saved almost $25 million after it lowered expense ratios for 21 individual mutual fund shares including three quantitative equity funds and six target-date funds (TDF)s.  

Last month, the firm reported lower expense ratios for shares of 35 funds representing aggregate savings of $13 million.

The expense ratio of the $6.6 billion Vanguard Strategic Equity Fund dropped three basis points to 0.18%, that of the $1.5 billion Vanguard Strategic Small-Cap Equity Fund dropped five basis points to 0.29%, and that of the $1.5 billion Vanguard U.S. Value Fund dropped three basis points to 0.23%. These funds are managed by Vanguard’s Quantitative Equity Group (QEG).

The firm’s six Target Retirement Funds (TRFs) saw their expenses drop by 1 basis point each. The expense ratios fell to 0.13% for both the Target Retirement Income Fund and the Target Retirement 2010 Fund, and to 0.14% for the Target Retirement 2025 Fund. Three institutional target-date funds—the $2.2 billion Vanguard Institutional Target Retirement Income Fund, the $2 billion Vanguard Institutional Target Retirement 2010 Fund, and the $6.3 billion Vanguard Institutional Target Retirement 2015 Fund—reported lower expense ratios of 0.09%.

For more information, visit Vanguard.com.

NEXT: Long Dollar Gold Trust Begins Trading