Products February 19, 2004

RAI, ACL Launch Multi-Manager CTA Portfolio

February 19, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The REFCO Alternative Investments, LLC (RAI) and Abbey Capital Limited (ACL) team has launched a multi-manager futures fund.
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The fund is a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) portfolio that offers access to 11 managers who collectively provide diversification across time frames, countries, markets and styles.   The portfolio combines trend following CTAs with non-trend following CTAs that attempt to minimize correlations and create a more consistent return profile, according to a news release.

The fund opened with more than $40 million from institutional and high net worth investors in the United States, Europe, the Far East and Latin America.

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The offering is a product of a strategic alliance forged between RAI, the alternative asset management division of REFCO Group Ltd., LLC and ACL on November 6, 2003.   ACL is responsible for portfolio construction, manager selection and risk management whereas RAI defines which products should be created. The products are then distributed to the institutional and high net worth marketplace whereby RAI is responsible for investor services.   An independent, third party administrator prices each fund on a daily basis.

Investing February 18, 2004

Equity, Bond Fund Inflows Set Records in January

February 18, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - January inflows into equity and balanced mutual funds (open-end, closed-end, funds underlying variable annuities, and ETFs) ran at the fastest monthly pace ever, rising to about $60 billion, according to a new research report.
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Strategic Insight (SI) said in a news release that January’s performance outpaced the prior record of $56 billion in February 2000.   These gains come on the heels of an estimated $233 billion captured by such funds for all of 2003 .

Tacking on “modest” bond fund inflows to equity fund results, January also produced the highest ever monthly pace of long-term fund inflows, which Strategic Insight estimated at $63 billion. That, according to the announcement, was about 50% higher than the previous monthly record.

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Combining strong inflows and NAV appreciation, SI estimates that during February 2004, total assets managed by all types of mutual funds (open-end, closed-end, funds underlying variable annuities, and ETFs) broke the $8 trillion mark, another all-time record .

“Investors are increasing their commitment to mutual funds where transparency, flexibility, access, and liquidity are available to everyone, not just a selected group of the wealthy class,” asserted Avi Nachmany, Strategic Insight’s Director of Research.

For more information, go to  www.sionline.com .

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