Funds Investing

The pricing and bookkeeping agent is responsible for maintaining the fund’s accounting records, pricing the fund’s portfolio each day, calculating periodic distributions, determining the fund’s cash availability, preparing financial statements and filing the fund’s tax returns. A fund’s accounting records are very similar to those of a small corporation, consisting of revenue, expenses, assets, liabilities and shareholder’s equity. The pricing and bookkeeping agent is responsible for maintaining these records each day. The accounting records are the basis for calculating the fund’s NAV, the price at which shareholders buy into and sell out of the fund, as well as for determining the distributions the fund makes to its shareholders. Read the rest of this entry »

Driven by a combination of management-initiated efforts to improve defined contribution plans and increasing employee bottom-up requests for a wider array and range of investment options, the average number of choices offered by Benefits, Inc. clients is now 10, compared to 3 or 4 choices 10 years ago. Indeed, many large companies offer 75 or more options. However, a concern is whether these additional options are being used properly. Read the rest of this entry »