Fund Types

Major Styles

Minor Styles

Services

Geographic definitions

Absolute Return
Investment strategies targeting a positive return in absolute terms rather than relative to an index, or other benchmark, usually associated with hedge funds. Also referred to as “cash plus” funds.
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Active Balanced
Style of investment management which aims to provide both income and capital appreciation while avoiding excessive risk and outperforming a particular market index or benchmark.
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Active Currency Management
An alternative investment strategy seeking excess returns from active currency management and taken independently of other investments. It is also known as active currency management alpha. The lack of correlation with underlying assets is intended to reduce portfolio risk. 
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Active Equity
Style of investment management, the goal of which is to outperform a particular index or benchmark through asset allocation and/or the selection of specific equities.
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Active Fixed-Income
Style of investment management, the goal of which is to outperform a particular index or benchmark through asset allocation and/or the selection of specific bonds and other securities paying a specific interest rate.
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Actuary
Professional who advises on financial issues relating to risk, probabilities, and mortality, most frequently in relation to the financing of pension plans and insurance companies.
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ACWI
The MSCI ACWI (Morgan Stanley Capital International All Country World Index), which is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure equity market performance in the global developed and emerging markets. As of June 2006 the MSCI ACWI consisted of the following 48 developed and emerging market country indices: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore Free, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
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ACWI (ex US)
The MSCI ACWI (Morgan Stanley Capital International All Country World Index) excluding the United States.
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ADR (American Depository Receipt)
A negotiable certificate issued by a U.S. bank representing a specific number of shares of a foreign stock traded on a U.S. stock exchange.
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Africa (geographic)
Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Congo, Democratic Republic of, Cote D'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
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Aggressive Growth
A hedge fund strategy that involves investing in equities that are expected to experience a rise in earnings per share and hedges by shorting equities that are expected to fall in value or by shorting stock indexes.
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All-Cap
Investments in stocks of companies across all sizes of market capitalization, such as small-cap, mid-cap and large-cap.
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Alternative: Hedge Funds
Funds aiming for absolute returns rather than beating a benchmark and which tend to use aggressive strategies including selling short, leverage, program trading, swaps, arbitrage, and derivatives. Hedge funds are exempt from many of the rules and regulations governing other mutual funds.
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Alternative: Private Equity
Equity capital invested in a private company.
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Annuity
A series of payments of set size and frequency, often to a retired person.
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Annuity Fund
A fund set up to provide annuities to beneficiaries.
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Asia (geographic)
Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Kingdom of, China, East Timor, Georgia, Hong Kong (SAR), India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Dem. People's Rep Of, Korea, South, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Republic of China, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
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Asia (MSCI All Country)
China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore Free, Taiwan, and Thailand.
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Asia (MSCI Emerging Markets)
China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand.
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Asia Pacific (MSCI All Country)
Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore Free, Taiwan, and Thailand.
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Asset Backed Securities
Bonds or notes backed by loan paper or accounts receivable originated by banks, or other providers of credit, but not mortgages.
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Asset Study
Provision of advised on the choice of asset classes.
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AVC
Additional Voluntary Contributions.
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Balkans (geographic)
Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia, and Turkey.
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Baltic States (geographic)
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.
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Bank
Any lender or credit union.
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Bank Loans
Investments in bank loans to companies, with a fixed maturity and often featuring amortization of principal.
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Benchmark
Parameter to assess degrees of comparative performance, such as S&P 500 and FTSE All Share Indexes.
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Benelux (geographic)
Belgium, Luxembourg, and Netherlands.
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Bundled
Investment across all asset classes.
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Caribbean (geographic)
Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, The Bahamas, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.
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Cash
Liquid investment in short term money markets.
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CDO (Collateralised Debt Obligation)
One of a series of bond-type investments, backed by a pool of assets, which can be tailored to match one or more investor’s requirements in terms of credit rating, risk, duration, and timing of payments.
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Central America (geographic)
Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama.
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Central Asia (geographic)
Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
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Central Europe (geographic)
Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovak Republic, Slovenia.
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Commercial
Real Estate investment in land and buildings used for a commercial purpose, such as retail, hotels and offices.
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Commission recapture

Commodities
Any bulk good traded on an exchange or in the cash market.
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Consultant
Provision of advice on an aspect of money management, often the choice of asset classes or the selection of an asset manager.
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Consumer Goods
Investments in firms involved in the production and/or marketing of consumer goods.
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Continental Europe (geographic)
Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Italy, Principality of Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, and Switzerland.
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Convertible-Arbitrage
A hedge fund strategy involving the purchase of a portfolio of convertible securities and, in some instances, a short position in that portfolio.
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Convertibles
Investments in bonds that can be converted into a predetermined amount of the company's equity at certain times during its life, usually at the discretion of the bondholder.
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Core
A substantial long-term holding in a portfolio or fund. A core holding is bought with the express purpose of being held for a long time, and is often a security with a history of fairly steady performance.
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Core-plus
A fixed-income investment management style that permits managers to add instruments with greater risk and potentially greater return – such as high-yield, global and emerging market debt – to core portfolios of investment-grade bonds.
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Corporate Bonds
Investment in a bond issued by a corporation.
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Corporate Defined Benefit (DB)
A company pension plan to which contributions are usually made by the employee, the employer, or both, which pays retired employees an amount based on salary history and years of service. The employer bears the investment risk.
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Corporate Defined Contribution (DC)
A company retirement plan for employees who choose to pay a small proportion of their salary into an investment fund to be used to purchase an annuity on retirement. The sponsoring company usually contributes to the plan but the employee bears the investment risk. In the United States plans are sometimes know as a 401(k) or 403(b).
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Currency overlay
A strategy to separately manage the exchange rate risks associated with the holding of foreign securities. 

Passive currency overlay neutralizes currency risk associated with holding securities in foreign currencies. There is no currency risk and no additional return.

Active currency overlay seeks to make an additional return by taking a view on currencies, but, as a result, only partially neutralizes currency risk. This is a higher risk, higher return strategy.
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Custody Services
Service to take legal responsibility for the assets of another entity, usually holding securities on behalf of asset managers and pension funds.
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Derivatives/Futures
Investment in securities, such as an option or futures contract, whose value depends on the performance of an underlying security or asset.
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Investors sometimes purchase or sell derivatives to manage the risk associated with the underlying security, to protect against fluctuations in value, or to profit from periods of inactivity or decline. These techniques can be quite complicated and quite risky.

Futures are a standardized, transferable, exchange-traded contract that requires delivery of a commodity, bond, currency, or stock index, at a specified price, on a specified future date. Futures convey an obligation to buy, which options do not.
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Distressed Debt
A hedge fund strategy involving short selling securities of companies where the price of securities is expected to fall because of a distressed situation.
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East Asia (geographic)
Japan, North Korea, South Korea, The People's Republic of China, The Republic of China on Taiwan.
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Education/Advice
When referring to defined contribution plans, investing instruction offered to plan participants.
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EAFE (MSCI Developed Markets)
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom.
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Eastern Europe (geographic)
Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, and Ukraine.
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Eastern Europe (MSCI Emerging Markets)
Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Russia.
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Emerging Markets (MSCI Emerging Markets)
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and Venezuela.
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Endowment
A permanent fund bestowed upon an individual or institution, such as a university, museum, hospital, or foundation, to be used for a specific purpose.
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Enhanced Index
A fund that aims to track an index, but also attempts to boost returns by taking advantage of market timing, specific stock selections, and/or leverage.
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Europe (geographic)
Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Channel Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and United Kingdom.
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Europe (MSCI All Country)
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and United Kingdom.
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Euro zone
Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain.
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Equity Non-Hedge
A hedge fund strategy buying stocks or stock index options which are expected to rise in value due to market appreciation.
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Far East (geographic)
Brunei, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, North Korea, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
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Far East (MSCI All Country)
China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore Free, Taiwan, and Thailand.
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Far East (MSCI Emerging Markets)
China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand.
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Far East (MSCI Developed Markets)
Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore
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Fixed Income Arbitrage
An investment strategy that uses leverage to profit from pricing inefficiencies in the fixed income markets.
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Foundation
An entity which exists to support a charitable institution, and which is funded by an endowment or donations.
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FTSE
The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 stock index, a market cap weighted index of stocks traded on the London Stock Exchange.
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GIC (Guaranteed Investment Contract)
Debt instrument issued by an insurance company, usually in a large denomination, and often bought for retirement plans. The interest rate paid is guaranteed, but the principal is not. Also called a guaranteed interest contract.
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Global Macro
A hedge fund strategy that makes leveraged bets based on anticipated price movements of stock markets, interest rates, foreign exchange rates and commodity prices.
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Government Bonds
Investments in bonds sold by governments, such as US Treasury Bills.
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Growth
An investment style that seeks stocks with strong earnings and/or revenue growth or growth potential.
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Health Plan
A private health insurance plan funded by employee contributions.
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Hedge Fund
Fund aiming for absolute returns rather than beating a benchmark and which tend to use aggressive strategies including selling short, leverage, program trading, swaps, arbitrage, and derivatives. Hedge funds are exempt from many of the rules and regulations governing other mutual funds.
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Hedge Fund-of-Funds
Pooled investments in several unregistered hedge funds.
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High-Yield
Description of investments with high rates of return. Generally, a high yield bond will be ranked very low by a rating agency, because these are bonds which have a relatively high chance of default, and therefore have to offer higher returns. Similarly, a stock will offer a high dividend yield in order to compensate for lower expected capital gains, for example a large company in a mature industry which is no longer growing.
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Hospital Plan
A non-profit entity that manages a hospital or similar healthcare facility. Refers only to endowment/foundation portion of operations.
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Hybrid DB-DC/Cash Balance
A cash-balance plan that exists alongside either a DB or DC plan (or both).
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Income
A stock with a history of regular dividend payments that constitute the largest portion of the stock's overall return.
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Index Arbitrage
An investment strategy that attempts to profit from the temporary differences between actual and theoretical futures prices of the same stock index. This is done by simultaneously buying (or selling) a stock index future while selling (or buying) the stocks in that index.
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Infrastructure
A capital investment in constructed facilities, equipment, land and natural resources, such as transportation, water supply, energy supply, and waste removal.
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Inflation-Linked Bonds
Government-issued debt securities similar to regular savings bonds, except they offer an investor inflationary protection, as their yields are tied to the inflation rate.
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Insurance
Insurer (referring to an insurer’s general account portfolio).
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Investment Grade
A bond with a high bond rating, such as BBB or above, and which is therefore considered relatively safe.
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Investment products
Usually a mandate for a variety of funds across asset classes, or a plan to offer both record-keeping and funds.
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Large-Cap
Stocks of companies that have the largest market capitalization. Definitions vary, but are usually either $5 billion and above or $10 billion and above.
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Latin America (geographic)
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
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Latin America (MSCI Emerging Markets)
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela.
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LBO (Leveraged Buy Out)
Takeover of a company, or a controlling interest in a company, using a significant amount of borrowed money, usually 70% or more of the total purchase price.
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Lehman Aggregate
A bond Index from Lehman Brothers used as a benchmark to measure relative performance of bond funds. The index comprises government securities, mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities and corporate securities to simulate the universe of bonds in the market.
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Liability Fund
Insurance fund that sets aside assets in case of loss-causing event, such as an oil spill or lawsuit.
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Long/Short
A hedge fund strategy which involves holding long equities which are consistently hedged by short sales of stock or stock index options.
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Market Neutral Arbitrage
A hedge fund strategy which attempts to hedge out market risk by taking offsetting positions, often investing in different securities from the same issuer to take advantage of pricing inefficiencies. Returns have little or no correlation to the equity and bond markets.
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Market Neutral Securities Hedging
A hedge fund strategy with investment equally in long and short portfolios, generally in the same sectors. Leverage may be used to increase returns. There is little or no correlation to market indexes. Benchmark is usually US Treasury bills.
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Merger Arbitrage
A hedge fund strategy based on event driven situations such as leveraged buy-outs, mergers and hostile takeovers. Strategy may include purchasing stock of the company being acquired and short-selling stock of the acquiring company.
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Mezzanine Finance
Venture capital investment in a company which is somewhere between start-up and an Initial Public Offering (IPO). Venture capital committed at this level usually has less risk but less potential appreciation than at the start-up level, and more risk but more potential appreciation than in an initial public offering (IPO).
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Micro-Cap
Stocks of companies that have the smallest market capitalization. Definitions vary, but are usually from $50 million to up to $250 million or up to $300 million.
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Micro- to Small-Cap
Stocks of companies that have a small market capitalization. Definitions vary, but are usually either between from $50 million to $1 billion.
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Mid-Cap
Stock with a middle-ranking market capitalisation within a market. Definitions vary but mid cap generally refers to stocks with a market capitalization of between either $1 billion-$2 billion up to either $5 billion or $10 billion.
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Mid-Term
Investments in assets for an intermediate duration.
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Middle East (geographic)
Bahrain, Iran (Islamic Republic Of), Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
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Mid- to Large-Cap
Stock with middle to large market capitalisation within a market. Definitions vary but mid cap generally refers to stocks with a market capitalization of between $1 billion-to $10 billion and above.
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Money Manager
An individual responsible for the financial portfolio of an individual or an entity. Money managers are paid to choose and monitor investments for clients.
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Money Purchase Plan
A defined contribution plan in which employer’s contributions are proportional to each employee’s wages.
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Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS)
An investment instrument that represents ownership of an undivided interest in a pool of mortgages, such as those issued by Ginnie Mae and Freddie Mac. Principal and interest from the individual mortgages are used to pay investors' principal and interest on the MBS.
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Multiple Arbitrage
A hedge fund strategy investing in more than one arbitrage strategy that attempts to profit by exploiting price differences of identical or similar financial instruments, on different markets or in different forms.
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Multi Asset
Mandate to invest in more than one asset class.
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Multi-Strategy
Investment style using various investment strategies to simultaneously attain short and long-term gains. Allows manager to overweight or underweight strategies depending on current investment opportunities.
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Non-Profit Organization
An incorporated organization which exists for educational or charitable reasons, also known as not-for-profit organizations. Shareholders or trustees do not benefit financially.
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Nordic Countries (MSCI Developed Markets)
Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.
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North America (geographic)
Bermuda, Canada, St Pierre and Miquelon, and United States.
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North America (MSCI Developed Markets)
Canada and United States.
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Nuclear Decommissioning Trust
Entity set up to oversee assets to fund decommissioning of nuclear power plants.
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Oceania (geographic)
Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federal States), Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa (USA), Samoa (Western), Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
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Operating Fund
Fund that oversees assets earmarked for specific purpose, such as a capital project.
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Opportunistic
A hedge fund investment style that is not restricted and changes strategy to take advantage of opportunities that arise from events such as IPO’s, sudden price changes, hostile bids, etc. Not restricted by asset class or strategy.
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Other Relative Value
A hedge fund investment style covering investments option that results from pricing inefficiency due to a specific market, corporate or corporate event.
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Pacific (MSCI Developed Markets)
Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore.
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Pacific Rim (geographic)
Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Chile, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, Eastern Russia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Island States of Oceania, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), New Zealand, Nicaragua, North Korea, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Western Pacific Sates of Canada, Western Pacific Sates of USA.
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Passive Balanced
Style of investment management which aims to provide both income and capital appreciation while avoiding excessive risk and following a particular market index or benchmark. Passive management offers limited portfolio maintenance at a lower cost.
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Passive Equity
Style of equity investment management which aims to provide both income and capital appreciation while avoiding excessive risk and following a particular market index or benchmark. Passive management offers limited portfolio maintenance at a lower cost.
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Passive Fixed-Income
Style of management investing in bonds and other securities paying a specific interest rate which aims to provide both income and capital appreciation while avoiding excessive risk and following a particular market index or benchmark. Passive management offers limited portfolio maintenance at a lower cost.
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Permanent Fund
Fund set up to pay make regular payments to beneficiaries in perpetuity. See Alaska Permanent Fund, which uses oil revenues and pays an annual benefit to all Alaska residents.
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Portable Alpha
Investment strategy investing in securities that have little or no correlation with the beta of an existing portfolio. Alpha is the return achieved by a manager’s ability to invest in a portfolio that performs better than the market on which the portfolio is derived (beta). Portable Alpha implies that the extra returns (alpha) can be separated by actively trading in stocks which do not change the same way as the rest of the market.

For example, this might be achieved by investing in index futures contracts to obtain exposure to the beta risk and return of an asset class. Because futures contracts are leveraged instruments (they are purchased for less than their face value) the difference is invested with an active manager providing alpha. An active manager might eliminate exposure to beta risk (and beta return), leaving just alpha risk and return by selling short the relevant index futures contract, or by holding offsetting long and short positions in different stocks.
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Private Equity
Investments in private companies.
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Private Equity Buy Out
A private equity investment in companies where the management is leading a buy-out from the previous owners backed by private equity finance.
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Private Equity Fund-of-Funds
Pooled investments in several private equity funds.
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Profit-Sharing Plan
A DC-type plan in which an employer offers to share profits with employees by contributing a portion of them to a qualified retirement plan.
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Public Defined Benefit (DB)
A state-sponsored or local authority pension plan to which contributions are usually made by the employee, the employer, or both, which pays retired employees an amount based on salary history and years of service. The employer bears the investment risk.
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Public Defined Contribution (DC)
A state-sponsored or local authority retirement plan for employees who choose to pay a small proportion of their salary into an investment fund to be used to purchase an annuity on retirement. The sponsoring company usually contributes to the plan but the employee bears the investment risk. In the United States plans are sometimes know as a 401(k) or 403(b).
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Real Estate
Investments in land, including the air above and the ground below, and any buildings or structures on it. Also known as realty.
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Real Estate Fund of Funds
Pooled investments in several real estate funds.
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REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust)
A pooled investment vehicle, a corporation or trust , to purchase and manage real estate. REITs are traded on major exchanges just like stocks, so they are liquid, and they often benefit from tax advantages.
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Residential
A real estate investment in family homes, such as apartments and townhouses.
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Rexiter
Rexiter Global Emerging Markets Sustainability Strategy was developed by State Street Global Advisors in conjunction with the International Finance Corporation, Rexiter Capital Management, and Innovest Strategic Value Advisors. The strategy seeks to systematically integrate environmental, social and governance factors into its portfolio construction process and aims to outperform the return of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index by four percent per annum over the course of a full market cycle.
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Risk Arbitrage
A hedge fund strategy that attempts to profit by exploiting price differences of identical or similar financial instruments, on different markets or in different forms.
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Russell 1000 Growth
An index published by the Frank Russell Company. The Russell 1000 Growth Index offers investors access to the large-cap growth segment of U.S. equity.
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Russell 1000 Index
An index published by the Frank Russell Company. The Russell 1000 Index offers investors access to the extensive large-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe representing approximately 92% of the U.S. market. It includes the largest 1000 securities in the Russell 3000.
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Russell 1000 Value
An index published by the Frank Russell Company. The Russell 1000 Value Index offers investors access to the large-cap value segment of the U.S. equity universe.
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Russell 2000 Index
An index published by the Frank Russell Company. The Russell 2000 Index offers investors access to the small-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe. The Russell 2000 includes the smallest 2000 securities in the Russell 3000.
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Russell 3000 Growth
An index published by the Frank Russell Company. The Russell 3000 Growth Index offers investors access to the broad growth segment of the U.S. equity universe.
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Russell 3000 Index
An index published by the Frank Russell Company. The Russell 3000 Index offers investors access to the broad U.S. equity universe representing approximately 98% of the U.S. market.
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Record Keeper

S&P 400 Index
An index published by Standard & Poor’s. The S&P MidCap 400 covers approximately 7% of the U.S. equities market.
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S&P 500 Index
An index published by Standard & Poor’s. It includes a sample of 500 leading companies in leading industries of the U.S. economy. Although the S&P 500 focuses on the large-cap segment of the market it is often considered to be representative of the US equity market and is frequently used as a benchmark.
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S&P 1000 Index
An index published by Standard & Poor’s. The S&P 1000 is a combination of the S&P MidCap 400 and S&P SmallCap 600 indices, where the S&P MidCap 400 represents approximately 70% of the index and the S&P SmallCap 600 represents 30%.
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South America (geographic)
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
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South Asia (geographic)
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and The Maldives.
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Southeast Asia (geographic)
Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
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Settlement Fund
Entity funded by legal settlement, such as teh US Tobacco Settlement.
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Stakeholder
Entity created to encourage employees without access to a corporate retirement plan to invest in a pension. Use to supplement Social Security or other government savings plans.
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Surplus Fund
Entity (usually governmental) that manages assets in excess of expenditures.
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Sector-Specific Categories
Investment of 50% or more of hedge fund assets in one sector.
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Securities Lending
Service to manage the lending of a fund sponsors securities to earn enhanced returns on the security through finance charges.
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Self-Directed Brokerage

Short Selling
Selling securities short with the expectation that they can be purchased later at a lesser price. This is due to an expected over-valuation of the securities.
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Short Term
Investments in assets for a short duration.
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Small-Cap
Refers to stocks with a relatively small market capitalization. The definition of small cap can vary, but generally it is a company with a market capitalization of between $300 million to $2 billion.
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Small- to Mid-Cap
Refers to stocks with a small to medium sized market capitalization. The definition can vary, but generally includes companies with a market capitalization of more than $300 million up to $10 billion.
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Statistical Arbitrage
A hedge fund strategy which uses computer models to determine and profit from pricing discrepancies in markets. Investment is usually trend-following or counter-trend modelling and attempts to profit from the likelihood that prices will trend toward a historical norm.
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Style Rotator
An active asset management strategy which over-weights in some asset classes and under-weights in others based on expected performance.
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Timberland/Vineyards
A real estate investment in forestry and vineyards.
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Transition Management
Service to manage the asset transfer from one asset manager to another, for example when an asset manager is replaced.
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Trust Fund
Assets held in a trust.
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Unbundled
When referring to defined contribution plans, when services are separate and a plan employs multiple providers.
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Union/Multi-employer Defined Benefit (DB)
Union defined benefit plan.
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Union/Multi-employer Defined Contribution (DC)
Union defined contribution plan.
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Value
An investment style which seeks securities that are believed to be undervalued in the market and that trade for less than their intrinsic worth. It uses valuation measures such as price to book ratio, price/earnings ratio and yield.
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Venture Capital
Pooled investment in funds made available for start-up firms and small businesses with strong growth potential. Also called risk capital and known as VC.
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Western Europe (geographic)
Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom.
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Wilshire 4500 Index
An index published by Dow Jones. It measures the performance of all small and mid-cap stocks. It is constructed using the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 securities with the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index removed.
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Yankee Bonds
Dollar-denominated bonds issued in the United States by foreign corporations, banks and governments.
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