Alternative investments

Despite the potential heavy burden that long-term care costs could place on many Americans during retirement, very few have actually planned for it, according to a survey by Genworth Financial.

At MetLife’s sixth annual benefits symposium in Washington this week, Treasury and Department of Labor officials discussed the difficulties of including annuities in 401(k)s. The two agencies have asked the public for comments through May 3 on including lifetime income solutions in employer plans.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed significant revisions to Regulation AB and other rules regarding the offering process, disclosure and reporting for ABS. The 5-0 vote Friday morning counts the SEC as an added player in the huge push coming from various regulators for more “skin-in-the-game” by ABS issuers.

NEW YORK -- Asset managers looking for creative new ways to profit during the global recovery have been launching a wave of exchange-traded products that aim to help portfolio managers and sophisticated investors increase their exposure to alternative investments and small-capital stocks.

They've been derided by Warren Buffett and feared by regulators, but some advisers are convincing clients that derivatives are helpful.

After taking massive losses in 2008, many on Wall Street expected investors in target-date funds to invest their retirement savings elsewhere.

Health savings accounts (HSAs) are unlikely to cover healthcare costs in retirement unless contribution limits on the plans are raised and interest rates rise, the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) said in a new report.

Victory Capital Management, the asset management arm of KeyCorp's KeyBank, says it is positioned to quickly expand the assets it manages in collective investment trusts, or CITs, for defined contribution plans, but the effort will not lack challenges.

Along with turnkey asset management programs, which allow advisers to outsource functions such as manager research, portfolio construction and performance reporting in order to gain operational and cost efficiencies, unified managed accounts are gaining popularity.

Charles Schwab filed arguments in federal court in San Francisco to try to preclude the Securities and Exchange Commission from suing it over its YieldPlus fund. Once one of the biggest short-term bond funds in the world, with $13.5 billion at its peak in 2007, YieldPlus lost 35%, before dividends, in 2008 due to high exposure to mortgage-backed securities, which comprised nearly 50% of its portfolio. Today, a mere shell of its former self, it stands at $184 million.

WASHINGTON — President Obama's successful fight to pass healthcare reform has given a bill to revamp the financial system a dramatic boost, lawmakers from both parties said Wednesday.

Charles Schwab filed arguments in federal court in San Francisco on March 19 to try to preclude the Securities and Exchange Commission from suing it over its YieldPlus fund, which had nearly 50% of its assets in mortgage-backed securities, Bloomberg reports.

In recent years, managers of target-date funds have made the argument that target-date funds need to take on added equity exposure and risk to see investors through retirements that could span 30 years or longer.

Seventy-five percent of financial advisers’ clients are planning to delay retirement up to five years, according to the quarter Brinker Barometer.

Northern Trust has launched a new investment fund platform consisting of collective funds sub-advised by investment managers retained and overseen by Northern Trust. The sub-advisors will market their funds themselves.

Buyers of long-term-care insurance are reacting to the economic turmoil in just the way many in the insurance industry expected: with thrift and caution.

SEI is offering enhanced, online portfolio and account monitoring services for wealth managers, to help them deal with increasing regulations concerning account reviews.

U.S. households increasingly are making retirement investment decisions on their own, often placing nest-egg balances in different types of accounts at multiple institutions. And a huge chunk of that money has gone into everyday banking products.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the 401(k), the revolutionary retirement savings vehicle that has been annihilating pension plans, empowering individuals to take part in the stock market—and that left retirees with the misfortune of leaving the workforce in 2000 or 2008 badly off.

New research from Cogent Research suggests that advisers aren’t talking to their clients often enough about retirement income products.