Products December 1, 2011

Standard Life Canada Offers SRI Choices

December 1, 2011 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Standard Life Assurance Company of Canada has made changes to its group and retail offering in order to continue sharpening its strategic focus on the long-term savings and investment market.
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Employers can now add socially responsible investment (SRI) funds to investment options for any Standard Life group savings and retirement plan. Retail customers now have access to new simplified Ideal Term Funds. Effective January 1, 2012, Standard Life will stop selling its individual life insurance and critical illness products, but will continue to service its in-force block of life insurance business.  

The company will continue to include life insurance coverage in its group benefits offering. It will no longer sell individual universal life insurance, term insurance, whole life insurance and critical illness insurance.  

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Standard Life is now offering four individual Meritas SRI Funds for group savings and retirement plans. Employers and their advisers can include these investment options immediately as part of a customized plan or, starting at the end of 2011, through the new Monitored Avenue Portfolio Program – Socially Responsible Investment options (MAPP-SRI options). The company said it chose funds for the MAPP-SRI options to provide long-term returns that aim to meet the needs of socially responsible investors and proper diversification amongst asset classes.   

As a result of the combination of Standard Life’s MAPP and SRI funds, group plan members can choose socially responsible investments tailored to their own unique risk profile and time to retirement. Their portfolios will subject to an automatic lifecycle and portfolio rebalancing and to Standard Life’s Quality & Choice Investment Program’s governance process.
Administration December 1, 2011

Md. State Retirement Agency Closes Direct Equity Real Estate Program

December 1, 2011 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – The Investment Division of the Maryland State Retirement Agency (SRA) has closed its 20-year-old Direct Equity Real Estate Program. 
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The program closed with the sale of the three remaining properties in its portfolio: Kentlands Square Shopping Center in Gaithersburg; Severna Park Marketplace in Severna Park and Cranberry Square in Westminster. The three Maryland properties were purchased in September by Bethesda-based Saul Centers, Inc. 

Kentlands Square Shopping Center, purchased by the retirement system for $35.5 million in 1997, sold for $74.5 million. Severna Park Marketplace, purchased for $31.4 million in 2002, sold for $61 million. Cranberry Square was purchased for $18.9 million in 1999 and sold for $33 million.

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“Going forward, we plan to invest in comingled funds offering greater diversification across property types and geographies,” said A. Melissa Moye, Ph.D., chief investment officer of SRA. 

The Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees in early 2009 decided to strategically wind down the direct investment program, which held nine properties—six in Maryland and three in Georgia.  Increasing diversification was the primary factor driving the decision.  

As of October 31, 2011, the pension system held $36 billion in assets with 5.5% in real estate and a target allocation of 10%.

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