Upgrades

Fusion Advisor Network, the co-op-like broker/dealer and practice management service provider led by Philip Palaveev and Stuart Silverman, has added five firms with 18 professionals and more than $3 million in revenue to its partnership, which includes NFP Securities Inc. (NFPSI). The new members give Fusion a total of 125 firms with 264 professionals.

…SunAmerica Retirement Markets has added two new guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits (GMWBs) to its Polaris variable annuity: SunAmerica Income Plus 6% offers 6% withdrawals as early as age 45 for investors who want or require more income now, while SunAmerica Income Builder 8% offers 8% guaranteed growth of future income for up to 12 years for investors interested in more income at a later date.

…Janus Capital Group is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its flagship Janus Fund (JANSX), which the mutual fund company said has more than doubled the return of the S&P 500 index since its February 5, 1070, inception, meaning that $10,000 invested in JANSX at inception would be worth more than $1 million today. Janus Fund opened with $500,000 in assets and 30 shareholders. Forty years later, JANSX has $8.6 billion in assets and more than 700,000 shareholders. It is one of only 19 large-cap growth funds ranked by Lipper with a track record of at least 40 years.

…FundQuest, the separately managed account services company, has entered into a platform services agreement with Envestnet Asset Management that will enable FundQuest to enhance its integrated advisor support services offerings.

…ProFunds Group has introduced two ETFs designed to provide leveraged and inverse exposure to the Nasdaq-100 Index: ProShares UltraPro QQQ (TQQQ), which aims to provide investment results that correspond to 300% of the daily performance of the Nasdaq-100 Index (before fees and expenses); and ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ (SQQQ), which aims to produce 300% of the inverse daily performance of the Nasdaq-100 Index (before fees and expenses).