"As with any investment, fixed income or 'bond' funds are subject to risk, but they also offer investors diversification, price transparency, and ease of use and access," said Dan Greenshields, president of ING DIRECT Investing. "Fixed income is a key component to a well-diversified2 portfolio, and ShareBuilder is committed to offering the products and tools to support investors as they work toward their goals - and that help make investing easy."3

ShareBuilder's new Bond Funds Center features:

• Screening tools: identify fixed income mutual funds or ETFs based on popular, pre-defined screens, or do a custom search by fund type, classification or rating
• Educational articles: learn about the differences between bonds and bond funds with educational articles from SmartMoney.com
• Fund ratings: view the top-rated bond mutual funds and ETFs from Lipper Leader Ratings4, a global leader in supplying mutual fund information, analytical tools and commentary
• Performance views: view bond fund performance over time with a dynamic view of the U.S. Treasury Yield Curve

At ShareBuilder, investors have quick and easy access to buy, sell and trade bond mutual funds and ETFs. ShareBuilder also offers access to recent innovations including "defined maturity" bond funds.