NEW YORK, June 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --J.P. Morgan Asset Management today launched Retirement Link, a comprehensive retirement offering with alliance partner FASCore, LLC to provide recordkeeping solutions to the small-to mid-sized retirement plan market.

Retirement Link combines the best of J.P. Morgan's innovative plan design, outcome-driven investment solutions, superior client service and leading retirement thought leadership with cost-effective operations and servicing. The offering will leverage FASCore's extensive experience to deliver bundled recordkeeping solutions for small-to mid-sized retirement plans with assets up to $40 million. J.P. Morgan will migrate a portion of its existing small-to mid-sized business to Retirement Link over the coming months. J.P. Morgan Retirement Plan Services also continues to serve its core to- mega clients through its industry-leading proprietary platform.

"The small-to mid-sized plan market is central to the continued growth of our retirement business. Our partnership with FASCore in launching Retirement Link was the result of a thorough evaluation and due diligence process to ensure that we can offer our clients outstanding service and competitive value," said Julia Bates, Managing Director, J.P. Morgan Small-to Mid- Market Retirement Plan business. "FASCore's long-term commitment to the retirement plan market, their industry leadership, high quality employees and processes, and our experience with the company, were primary factors that influenced our selection and the development of Retirement Link."

Charlie Nelson, president of FASCore, said, "We're excited to expand our partnership with J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Their broad distribution, asset management and retirement solution expertise make them an attractive partner. We also applaud their focus on plan sponsor solutions and participant retirement readiness. Both of these initiatives are consistent with our priorities as well."

About J.P. Morgan Asset Management RetirementJ.P. Morgan Asset Management is a leading comprehensive retirement solutions provider dedicated to improving individual retirement outcomes. J.P. Morgan Retirement Plan Services provides bundled defined contribution services available to plans of all sizes, including more than 650 clients and 1.8 million plan-level participants representing more than $125 billion in retirement plan assets as of March 31, 2012. J.P. Morgan Defined Contribution Investment Solutions manages more than $61 billion in defined contribution assets as of March 31, 2012.

About J.P. Morgan Asset ManagementJ.P. Morgan Asset Management, with assets under supervision of approximately $2.0 trillion and assets under management of $1.4 trillion (as of March 31, 2012), is a global leader in investment management. J.P. Morgan Asset Management's clients include institutions, retail investors and high-net worth individuals in every major market throughout the world. J.P. Morgan Asset Management offers global investment management in equities, fixed income, real estate, hedge funds, private equity and liquidity. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), the parent company of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, is a leading global asset management firm with assets of approximately $2.1 trillion and operations in more than 60 countries. Information about JPMorgan Chase & Co. is available at http://www.jpmorganchase.com.

About FASCore, LLC FASCore, a wholly owned subsidiary of Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company, is a leading provider of recordkeeping and administrative services for the defined contribution and deferred compensation market. For more than 40 years, FASCore has provided retirement plan recordkeeping services for 401(k), 403(b), 457 and non-qualified plans of all sizes. It has grown recently by partnering with banks, insurance companies, brokerage firms, money management companies, and other financial institutions to offer private-label recordkeeping services to their plan clients. At March 31, 2012, FASCore record kept 4.5 million participant accounts(1).

About Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance CompanyGreat-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company, headquartered in metro Denver, serves its customers through a range of group retirement savings products and services, individual retirement accounts, life insurance and annuities, and business-owned life insurance. It is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Great-West Lifeco Inc. and "A Member of the Power Financial Corporation Group of Companies" .

"A Member of the Power Financial Corporation Group of Companies" is the registered mark of Power Corporation of Canada. Great-West Retirement Services and the Partnership logo are the registered trademarks of Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company.

(1) Recordkeeping numbers reflect all FASCore customers: those of institutional clients, third-party administrator clients and Great-West Retirement Services.

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J.P. Morgan Asset Management Announces Launch of Retirement Link(SM) to serve Small-to Mid-Market Retirement Plans

Iomega's StorCenter ix2-dl ($199.99 (diskless) MSRP) is the company's latest NAS offering for power users and small business. The ix2 is unique in that it combines the easy-to-use consumer features of Iomega's Home Media Network Hard Drive with capabilities of Iomega's weightier StorCenter business-class NASes. For example, the ix2 offers sharing content over the Internet with a personal cloud, and unlike the Home Media device, is not an enclosed NAS. The ix2 supports up to 2x SATA I or II HDDs.

The result is a NAS that is superior than the Home Media Network Hard Drive. It's got business-class capabilities, awesome video-surveillance support, and very good Read/Write speeds. However, some issues I had when setting up a personal cloud for the Home Media Network Hard Drive still linger in the ix2.

Specs The ix2 includes a Marvell 6282 processor, 256 DDR II DRAM, one Gigabit Ethernet port, and a USB 2.0 port for connecting a printer or external USB drive.

Two bays support either single or dual drive configurations. The ix2 supports up to 6TB capacity and RAID 1 mirroring with dual drives. Adding or removing SATA drives is a tool-less and effortless task. There's a removable front panel to access the drive bays. The drive trays are thin, plastic frames that snap to the drives and can serves as a handle for removing drives. The plastic frames are far easier to work with than traditional metal drive trays.

Setup Once the drives and installed and the system is powered up, the device is setup via a web portal at http://www.myiomega.com. The ix2's setup process reflects an emerging trend among networking hardware vendors; that is, bucking a setup CD in favor of online setup.

When I browsed to the Web portal once my ix2 was connected online, I saw the message Your ix2 is online and ready to use. From here, users can backup data and consolidate existing files, create a personal Iomega cloud (more on that later), or can manage the ix2.

Most users are going to want to first set up the device, so I opted to manage the ix2. Upon initial visit, the site offers walking you through basic set up options such as configuring the time and date, establishing email notifications, and setting up a personal cloud.

Six folder shares are created automatically: Backup, Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, and Shared Media. These folders also had automatic mapping created in my Windows Explorer.

The setup process using the online portal is fine, as long as you have a good, working Internet Connection. I prefer to download Iomega's StorCenter manager, which previously was shipped on disk, to ensure that my NAS is online and receiving proper network information. You can still download StorCenter Manager to use with the ix2, though. The setup process is not as cut-and-dried with the personal cloud setup, unfortunately.

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Iomega StorCenter ix2-dl

To: RNS

From: Personal Assets Trust plc

Date: 20 June 2012

Results for the year ended 30 April 2012

The Directors of Personal Assets Trust ("PAT") are pleased to announce the Group's results for the year ended 30 April 2012.

The key points are as follows:

PAT is run expressly for private investors. Its (Euronext: ALITS.NX - news) investment policy is to protect and increase (in that order) the value of shareholders' funds per share over the long term and to earn as high a total return as is compatible with a risk equivalent to that of the FTSE All-Share Index.

Over the year to 30 April 2012 PAT's net asset value per share ("NAV") rose by 6.6%. This compares to a fall of 5.4% in the Company's comparator, the FTSE All-Share Index. PAT's share price rose by 22.70 during the year and at 30 April 2012 was 340.70. An analysis of performance is provided in the Chairman's Statement and Investment Adviser's Report below.

Since PAT became independently managed in 1990 the Board has chosen to measure PAT's performance over rolling three year periods. Over the three years to 30 April 2012 the net asset value total return per share was 54.2% compared to the FTSE All-Share Index's 52.2%, an outperformance of 1.3%.

The Company has experienced a strong demand for its shares. During the year the Company issued 395,856 Ordinary shares, raising 132.0 million of net new capital.

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Personal Assets Tst. - Final Results

By Steve Van Tiem - June 20, 2012 | Tickers: CMG, JACK, PNRA | 0 Comments

Steve is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinions of our bloggers and are not formally edited.

When considering a potential new investment like Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG), I first conduct due diligence on the capability and integrity of the management team, even before digging into the financials to examine revenue growth, profit margins, cash flow, and debt levels. Because it implements strategy and allocates the companys capital, evaluating the management team is crucial to estimating a company's prospective long-term results. The presence of a capable and shareholder-friendly management team gives investors confidence that past operating success will continue into the future and lead to continued shareholder gains. To evaluate management, I look at how closely their interests are aligned with the shareholders' interests, the returns on investment that they have produced, and the total compensation they have taken for their efforts.

The first measure that I assess is how closely the senior managers interests are aligned with mine as a shareholder. The key insiders of Chipotle, which as a group includes five executives and five independent directors, hold 1.7% of outstanding shares. This percentage of ownership is better than two of Chipotles fast casual restaurant competitors, Jack in the Box, Inc. (NASDAQ: JACK) and Panera Bread Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: PNRA) at 1.4% and 0.8%, respectively. The holdings of the key insiders of Chipotle are down over the past 12 months so this factor rates as neutral to good for Chipotle.

A second measure of management is their ability to produce returns on invested capital. Chipotle scores very well as return on invested capital (ROIC) has steadily improved to more than 23% in 2011 from 13% in 2008 and 2.7% in 2004. The average ROIC has been 14.8% since 2004. It is also very bullish that the company has achieved this without long-term debt, so return on equity has matched ROIC. By contrast, Jack in the Box and Panera have generated average ROIC of 10.9% and 16.7%, respectively, since 2004. In 2011, ROIC was 9.2% for Jack in the Box and 21.7% for Panera. Chipotles upward trend and most recent annual ROIC distinguish it among its peers.

My last test of management is the total compensation the companys managers have taken in comparison to revenue growth, returns to shareholders, and compensation taken by similar competitors. Chipotles compensation of key executives increased by an average annual compound rate of more than 36% from 2007 through 2011. Given that the share price rose by 43% compounded annually over the same time, this growth in compensation is reasonable. Note that there are no dividends, thus the return to shareholders is solely from share price appreciation.

The companys compensation appears less beneficial for investors, however, when considering revenue growth. Chipotles compensation has increased to 2.2% of revenue in 2011 from 1.3% in 2007, while Jack in the Box's compensation was 0.5% of revenue in 2011 and 0.2% in 2007 and Panera's compensation was 0.6% of revenue in 2011, up from about 0.2% in 2007. While lower management compensation as a percentage of revenue at Panera and Jack in the Box would seem to be better for investors, these lower payout rates are appropriate for their managements because their share prices have lagged Chipotle. Jack in the Box saw its shares decline by more than 7% compounded annually between 2007 and 2011 while Panera's shares rose by more than 20% compounded annually during that time, compared to 43% annually for Chipotle.

Overall, it appears that Chipotle's management has its interests in line with the shareholders. They generally satisfy my standards for integrity and capability, thus the company is a good investment candidate that merits further due diligence regarding the attractiveness of its financial position and operating results. Despite a big increase in share price to a recent $417 per share, which is near an all-time high, the quality of the companys management leads me to believe that Chipotle may be well positioned to continue rewarding shareholders through rising intrinsic value. In a future posting, I will examine the companys operating metrics including revenue and cash flow growth, profitability, debt levels, and working capital efficiency to assess the prospects for continued share price appreciation.

Steve Van Tiem is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network

22 Published Posts

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Superior Management a Key Ingredient to Chipotle's Success

Business Travel Success is the go-to guide for everything travel-related, from flying, driving, and train and bus riding. Margolis shares vital tips on how to find the cheapest hotel rate, how to make sure you're dressed appropriately for any business occasion, and how to stretch your travel budget. Margolis also offers packing tips, like the bundle or hobo method, and why you should pack baking soda instead of both toothpaste and deodorant! Business Travel Success offers some surprising hints on how to escape the unwanted and sometimes smelly presence of airplane seatmates and also includes entire chapters addressing traveler needs regarding safety, health and fitness, personal matters, social media, and much more. After reading Business Travel Success, new and old road warriors will discover that traveling can be a pleasurable experience instead of torture. Also, thanks to the relationship tips in Business Travel Success, traveling home will be the best journey of all!

About the Author: As the CEO of an international consulting firm, Carol Margolis has spent 25 years traveling nationally and internationally across six continents for business. She is a seasoned road warrior and wrote 70 Secrets to Safe Travel. Margolis also founded SmartWomenTravelers.com which is dedicated to helping women who travel. Margolis also created the program Business Travel Success, which helps both first-time travelers and other seasoned road warriors improve their business travel experiences. Margolis has experienced great success and appears on Reuters.com and USAToday.com, as well as being welcomed as a frequent radio and television guest on Good Morning America and Fox News. She is also often quoted in USA Today, the LA Times, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

More About This Title: Business Travel Success...How to Reduce Stress, Be More Productive and Travel With Confidence! available on Amazon.

Business Travel Success: How to Reduce Stress, Be More Productive and Travel with Confidence by Carol Margolis was released by Morgan James Publishing on May 1, 2012. Business Travel Success: How to Reduce Stress, Be More Productive and Travel with Confidence, ISBN 9781614481296, has 252 pages and is being sold as a trade paperback for $21.95.

If you would like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Carol Margolis, please call Vivian Deuschl of Deuschl Hospitality Public Relations at 703-941-6225 or email Vivian at vdeuschl@gmail.com.

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Business Travel Success - 100's of Travel Tips!

Boston The seven Bain Capital founders believed they were so destined to make millions that the young men posed for a photo on the grand marble staircase of Bostons Copley Place with $10 and $20 bills popping out of their shirt collars, tucked behind their eyeglasses and clutched in their teeth.

Their confidence was warranted. One went on to run an airline, another to buy a basketball team, and another to oversee two health-care companies and build custom roadsters.

Their leader, Mitt Romney, went on to become governor of Massachusetts and this years likely Republican presidential nominee.

At the 1984 photo shoot, Romney and his partners were celebrating not only their new company but also the ethos of their era. They had just given up their jobs as consultants at Bain & Co. to start Bain Capital with one overarching goal: to create wealth. They were, to use a favorite Romneyism, dreamers.

Nearly three decades later, the black-and-white snapshot captures a moment when Romney was about to become wildly successful in business, giving him the resources and a critical credential for entering national politics.

Yet the photo also embodies one of Romneys challenges as a candidate: his wealth.

President Obama has seized upon his challengers position at the apex of American capitalism to portray him as elite and out of touch.

Were the poster children for class warfare now, said Geoffrey S. Rehnert, one of the seven partners in the photograph. Thats something I never anticipated. Rehnert and other partners said they are unhappy about the politicization of the image. One of Romneys mentors called the shot tacky and inappropriate.

The cocky assurance that Romney and his buddies displayed in the photo belied their youth and inexperience. Romney, then 36, was a success by any measure. He had risen through the Bain ranks quickly, and he was earning a good living and raising five sons.

Running Bain Capital was the biggest challenge yet in his career, and he approached it cautiously and gradually, with the same careful evaluation and reliance on analytics that would characterize his political campaigns and term as governor.

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1984 Bain Capital money photo captured Romney on eve of major success

20 June 2012 Last updated at 19:00 ET By Bill Wilson Business reporter, BBC News

World champion cyclist Mark Cavendish - who justifiably describes himself as "the fastest man on two wheels'"- has a strenuous summer ahead of him.

The 27-year-old defends the green jersey he won in the 2011 Tour de France, while also looking to win gold in the London 2012 cycling road race.

Before competing in the Olympics, he will have cycled some 3,500km (2,175 miles) in the Tour de France, which gets under way in Belgium on 30 June.

The Manxman is a winner of 20 stages in the last four Tours.

Six days after the end of the 99th staging of the Tour, he will then line up in London on 28 July for the Olympic road race, the climax of which ends in the Mall.

"It is not easy but it is possible," says the sprint specialist, speaking at a Sport Industry Group event in London.

"I am doing both for different reasons.

"There are some guys missing out the Tour de France to concentrate on the Olympics.

"But the Tour de France is the biggest cycling race in the world, commercially. For any sponsor putting money into cycling, the race is a big factor in any deal."

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Cavendish sprints for cycling success

Thursday, 21 June 2012 10:39

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has allowed banks/Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) to assign clean credit card and personal loan limits up to Rs5 million to their "prime customers".

The higher clean limit facility has been provided to banks/DFIs with a view to providing flexible treatment to their prime customers. However, aggregate exposure of banks/DFIs in respect of prime customers, has been capped at up to 20 percent of the total exposure on account of credit cards and personal loans, says a circular issued to the Presidents/Chief Executive Officers of all banks and DFIs on Wednesday.

In view of this facility to prime customers, the following paragraph has been added after paragraph 3 of Regulation R-7 of Prudential Regulations for Consumer Financing:

"Banks/DFIs may assign clean credit card and personal loan limits up to Rs 5,000,000 (aggregate from all banks/DFIs) to their prime customers subject to the condition that the aggregate clean limit assigned to one prime customer on account of personal loan should not exceed Rs2,000,000. The banks/DFIs shall put in place comprehensive criteria defining "Prime Customer" on the basis of, inter alia, track record, credit worthiness and financial position, duly approved by their Board of Directors. The banks/DFIs are also encouraged to set internal limits for such clean financing to prime customers keeping in view their risk appetite and other factors. However, aggregate exposure on prime customers should not exceed 20 percent of the total exposure of the respective portfolio i.e 80 percent exposure on account of credit cards and personal loans (separately) should comply with the limits prescribed for regular customers. Further, robust mechanism for risk profiling and risk mitigation should also be adopted for this purpose."

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Banks/DFIs allowed to assign up to Rs5mn limit

Do you ever find yourself staring at web comics or news sites (or even blogs on personal development) when youre supposed to be working? Sure. We all do, right?

We all lack focus at times especially if were struggling with a hard or boring task. And with computers / tablets / phones close to hand, weve got a world of distractions at our fingertips.

Dont feel bad if you dont always concentrate as well as youd like. Staying focused takes effort, and practice but by following these steps, you can hugely increase your chances of having a productive day.

Step #1: Get Clear About Your Immediate Goal Whatever youre working on, you should have some sort of end goal: you need to know once youre done with your current task.

All too often, though, we work a bit aimlessly perhaps checking emails, then filing some papers, then typing a few words on that dull report, then answering a couple of emails, and so on.

Each time you switch to a new task, write down in a few words what youre aiming to accomplish. For instance:

and so on. This is an efficient way of working: instead of splitting your focus between a bunch of different things, youll be concentrating on one task at a time. Youll also have a clear end point in sight which is great for motivation.

Step #2: Close Down Any Distractions There are two types of event that throw you off-task when youre working: interruptions and distractions.

You cant always do much about interruptions. These are external events, like your phone ringing, or a colleague dropping by to ask a question. (You might want to let your phone go to voicemail, though, or put on headphones to prevent people striking up a casual conversation.)

Distractions, though, are under your control even if it doesnt always feel that way! A distraction is the urge to check your email, or to see whether your favorite web comic has been updated and so on.

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How To Stay Focused When You’re Tempted To Slack Off – In 3 Simple Steps

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M7hQC8-jEc

19-06-2012 09:32 Streamed live from the 21st edACCESS annual conference Learn more about this participant-driven conference at Online Learning is Good for Independent Schools Presenter: Brad Rathgeber Online learning has grown rapidly at independent schools over the last few years. More than 3 million high school students and more than 5 million college students took online courses this year, with the vast majority of them (~90%) taking them to supplement face-to-face course opportunities. And yet, even with this growth, few independent schools have thought much about online learning or started to develop a plan for using this evolving learning platform. You can expect this keynote session to acclimate you to the possibilities and pitfalls of online learning, address the options that independent schools have for moving into this field, and offer an example approach that some independent schools have taken. More importantly, you will also have the chance to explore an independent school approach to online learning through exploration of an online classroom. Brad Rathgeber is the Director of the Online School for Girls, a non-profit consortium of independent schools, which he helped found in 2009. Brad has worked to create an independent school model for online education, one that favors dynamic relationships between teachers and students, a collaborative approach to learning, and student-centered approaches. Instead of relying on curriculum already created, the Online ...

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edACCESS 2012 Brad Rathgeber Keynote - Video