AXA Wealth’s Elevate has partnered with Vestra Wealth to provide a range of bespoke and managed portfolio options for IFAs seeking to outsource business to a discretionary fund manager, or DFM, ahead of the retail distribution review, or RDR.

Elevate, a component of the AXA Wealth business, is continuing its series of developments by allowing DFMs to offer their services via the platform, providing advisers with the traditional client-bespoke asset management, along with the option of managed portfolios.

Elevate’s flexibility now extends between a traditional DFM proposition to a simplistic model portfolio approach. This provides the opportunity for an IFA to use any model portfolio they deem appropriate, from a fully outsourced solution, right through to the use of their own multi manager funds and portfolios or a solution from AXA’s independently run multi manager arm, Architas Multi-Manager Limited.

David Thompson, managing director, AXA Wealth Distributors, says: “Increasingly, IFAs are looking at their business models and in many cases will look to outsource their investment solutions to various third party discretionary fund managers – a trend that is set to continue with the impending implementation of the RDR. The flexible functionality of Elevate means that there are various levels of service on offer to suit a range of business models.”

Source:http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-alert/axa_axa-elevate-partners-with-vestra-wealth-for-dfm-outsourcing-service-1333624.html

KelKo Products Co., 2110 George St., Sandusky, has fought the trend of American manufacturing being sent overseas by making parts that offshore companies either cannot or will not make.

Although the studs and other threaded parts KelKo makes aren’t on the shelves of Home Depot, Lowe’s or other home improvement stores, the company’s products are found in machinery made by Caterpillar, John Deere and Komatsu and are also used by elevator companies and makers of residential sump pumps.

KelKo Products cuts or rolls threads into metal bars to make double-ended stud bolts. The company also cuts or rolls threads into parts shipped to them by other manufacturers.

With about 1,600 customers across the country, including equipment manufacturers and distributors, KelKo succeeds by taking on orders from as small as eight pieces up to 170,000 or more, according to Matt Koch, 57, president.

“We make highly specialized high-quality fasteners,” Brian Koch, 53, vice president and head of manufacturing, said. “Everything we do is made to customer specifications.”

Still family-owned and operated after more than 80 years, KelKo was started by Don Kelly and Francis Koch on Reese Street in downtown Sandusky in the late 1920s, according to Matt Koch.

“When I was a teenager, I made $1 an hour,” he said, running equipment including a saw and a machine that beveled the edges of bar stock, a raw metals used to make machinery. “There were about six guys total in the crew.”

In those days, Matt’s father Paul Koch ran the company, before Matt became president in 1986.

Matt recalls his mother, Pat, typing invoices and other paperwork for the company, and Paul Koch designed and made equipment that is still in use on the shop floor.

Source:http://morningjournal.com/articles/2010/11/28/news/business/doc4cf1ed686ee6c816807514.txt