Oct. 17--The financial-services industry may continue to stumble, but a Greenwich-based investment adviser said he believes it's the ideal time to expand offerings and has launched Commonwealth Asset Management LLC, a registered investment adviser and wealth management firm.

Commonwealth Management Partners hired Henley Smith, a 25-year veteran in the fixed-income sector, to manage the new service, which initially will focus on "conservative but highly flexible" fixed-income strategies to serve the investment needs of high-net-worth individuals and select institutional clients.

Smith, an Easton resident, was chief investment officer of Gabelli Fixed Income LLC for 10 years until 2006 and most recently chief investment officer of a wealth management firm based in New York City specializing in high-grade municipal bond investing.

Smith will follow Commonwealth's "client-centric approach" to investment management and portfolio advisory services, said Robert Zuccaro, managing director of Commonwealth Management Partners and former chief financial officer at Gabelli Fixed Income.

He will service a niche of value-added, "customizable" and transparent portfolios designed to complement traditional allocation equity portfolios, Zuccaro said, and provide clients "with the tools to unlock value in some of the most unpredictable markets this generation has ever faced."

The new firm offers short-term fixed-income portfolio strategies that are safe, secure and

provide greater overall client control, according to Smith.

"CAM's (Commonwealth Asset Management) cash-investment management products actively compete with money-market funds whose year-long federal guarantees expired last month," he said. "Our core competencies lie in the investment of cash, fixed income and absolute return equity products that we feel will be in even greater demand during the next year or so as wealthy individuals, family offices and business owners look for more personalized service and the quality returns."

The fund is expected to have a staff of about a dozen advisers, according to Commonwealth spokesman Nick Kilsby.

Fixed-income opportunities offer a good alternative to some other investment options, said Michael Tucker, a finance professor at Fairfield University.

"Fixed income has had a pretty good year. Bonds are up more than stocks. The muni market was clobbered, but now it's yielding 6 percent. Money-market funds are below 1 percent. You might as well keep them under the bed," Tucker said.

Given the volatility of the investment market, he said there is a need for good investment advice from experienced advisers such as Smith.

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