While building a fully integrated asset management enterprise, we maintained momentum in our existing activities and launched new initiatives to produce long-term growth.
Product development was a major focus in 2000. New products included an irrevocable life insurance trust product and our first participating guaranteed investment contract (GIC). We also developed new mutual fund products for our retail, institutional and variable product offerings.
The fund management area completed the year with more than $19.4 billion in assets under management. This area consists of MainStay Funds, Inc.*, which manages funds for individual investors, and the Eclipse Funds*, formerly known as the MainStay Institutional Funds.
We renamed the family of institutional funds after acquiring the Eclipse Funds in January 2001. The acquisition, which brought four new funds to our family, will support our growth strategies by broadening our offerings of financial products in key markets.
MainStay, through NYLIFE Distributors Inc., offers 25 funds to individual investors. Eclipse now offers 18, including three new funds introduced in January 2001. Fund sales totaled $4.1 billion in 2000, distributed through a variety of intermediary channels. These include New York Life's network of 6,500 NYLIFE Securities registered representatives, leading Wall Street brokerage firms and independent advisers.
MacKay Shields and Monitor Capital Advisors, two wholly owned and independently managed subsidiaries of NYLIM, manage institutional accounts for a variety of retirement plans, corporations and municipalities. Our growth equity team at MacKay Shields, which manages large-cap and small-cap funds, will introduce a mid-cap product early in 2001. Monitor Capital also is introducing an entire new class of quantitative products. In all, 14 new funds are scheduled for introduction in 2001. Over the long term, these new products will allow us to capture a greater share of individual and institutional investment assets.
The Guaranteed Products Group provides guaranteed income products to the market for 401(k) defined-contribution plans. The group's products are distributed through a dedicated, centralized sales team. Our client base consists of more than 1,000 institutional investors, including most Fortune 100 companies.
On the defined-benefit side, NYLIM gained recognition in 2000 as a leader in the emerging new market for bundled defined-benefit services.
* The MainStay Funds and Eclipse Funds are distributed by NYLIFE Distributors Inc., 300 Interpace Parkway, Building A, Parsippany, NJ 07054