The registered investment advisory firm Curian Capital this week launched a platform that it is classifying as a unified-managed-household solution.
This new offering from Denver-based Curian provides investors — with a minimum of $250,000 — a convenient, aggregated view of their Curian holdings, the firm said in a statement.
The idea behind the new platform is that advisers work with investors to set goals for each portion of their assets, resulting in separate portfolios, each with its own risk tolerance and asset allocation.
These can then be viewed in the aggregate on the Curian system, hence the “unified” aspect of the system.
“Most clients have multiple investment goals with varying time horizons. However, the standard approach to investing has typically been to put all of the household's assets into one portfolio and assign a single risk tolerance and asset allocation,” Chris Rosato, the senior vice president of strategic development for Curian Capital, said in a statement.
“Curian's Custom Wealth Platform takes a broader approach by allowing clients to invest according to the specific goal — whether it's saving for a child's college education or a home-remodeling project — that is associated with each portion of their assets. The result is a … wealth plan that helps clients become comfortable with an overall strategy,” he said.
Curian manages about $3 billion in assets.
For more information visit
Curian Capital LLC online.
Tech firms see fast turnaround for their sector
Top technology executives predict a speedier economic recovery for their sector than for the overall U.S. economy.
Those are the optimistic results of a survey of hardware and software company executives conducted by New York-based KPMG LLP and released this week.
Some 130 chief executives and other C-level executives, representing a mix of midsize to large technology companies, were canvassed between May and July.
Two-thirds of the respondents said they thought their industry would fully recover from the current economic crisis ahead of the overall U.S. economy.
As might be expected, executives based in the technology-driven Silicon Valley area of California proved even more optimistic: 77% of them said they expected their sector to pull ahead of the overall economy.
Among respondents, 39% predicted the overall economy would recover by next year, while 43% thought it would take longer, going beyond 2010.
Stronger revenue in the technology sector was the forecast for 2010 among 78% of respondents, while 72% said they were expecting improved profitability.
Queried about how their firms had reacted in the past year to the downturn, 68% indicated they had been forced to reduce head count — but only 14% of respondents said they are planning or considering additional reductions in 2010.
Among the respondents, 33 were from firms with revenue of more than $1 billion, 22 were from companies with revenues in the $250 million to $1 billion range, and 75 respondents' companies had revenue of below $250 million.
For additional information visit
KPMG online.