The Abacus Investment Committee met on 8/29/12 with the focus on reviewing our real asset mix and Emerging Markets mix. In reviewing Real Assets, the Abacus Investment Committee researched opportunities which would offer great income generating abilities and a low correlation to commodities and other real assets. Master limited partnerships (MLPs) do the aforementioned. MLPs are limited partnerships that are publicly traded on a securities exchange.The Abacus Investment Committee has decided to add this asset class as part of the standard Real Asset exposure in our model.
Prior to the IC meeting, Abacus utilized three equity mutual funds for obtaining Emerging Markets exposure: DFA Emerging Core, DFA Emerging Markets Small and DFA Emerging Markets Value. The investment committee decided to replace this mix for our standard Emerging Markets allocation with DFA Emerging Markets Core Fund (DFCEX). The DFA Emerging Core fund is tilted towards small cap issuers and value stocks. DFCEX has a lower expense ratio (.67% as of 10/23/12) than the prior combination. Also, reducing the funds in this asset class will result in reduced trading costs, and will minimize the overlap in emerging market exposure.**
**The securities identified and described do not represent all of the securities purchased, sold or recommended for client accounts. The reader should not assume that an investment in the securities identified was or will be profitable.
