Alternative investments

Fidelity Investments and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts jointly announced Monday that the two firms have struck an agreement whereby the Boston-based mutual fund company's customers will be to access the initial public offerings and secondary stock sales of KKR portfolio companies.

Thanks to shady money managers like Bernie Madoff who ruined it for everyone, the lucrative and surreptitious heydays of hedge funds may be gone for good.

From recommending different products to rethinking their risk management strategy, some financial advisers say they have changed their approach in the wake of last year's market slump. Indeed, many retail investors remain on the sidelines of the stock market, with assets in equity funds only half of what they were in late 2007 before the economic crisis began and the market lost 56% of its value.

ProFunds Group has launched four leveraged international exchange-traded funds that will track the Europe, Australasia and Far East region, emerging markets, China and Japan. The funds will aim to return twice the daily performance of indexes tracking those regions.

After so many 2010 target-date funds came up short last year, Prudential Retirement investigated how they might be improved, and decided that including retirement income guarantees would be a key benefit. They would freeze the asset allocations of target-date funds five or 10 years prior to retirement, in exchange for guaranteed income.

Invesco, manager of the Aim and PowerShares families of mutual funds, has launched the Aim Balanced-Risk Allocation Fund, an international balanced fund. Via derivatives, it will invest 60% of its assets in fixed income, 20% in equities and 20% in commodities.

In a challenge to one of mutual funds' strongholds, exchange-traded fund providers are targeting defined contribution plans.

After several failed attempts, the Securities and Exchange Commission is again revisiting the contentious debate on shareholder proxy voting.

Less than two years ago, investment managers were scrambling to launch their own 130/30 funds, but interest has cooled significantly after these funds largely failed to perform in the recession.

Dow Jones Indexes has launched the Dow Jones U.S. Economic Stimulus Index, which will list 50 companies that are expected to receive stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The six key areas the index will focus on are: alternative energy, construction and materials, the energy grid, the environment, technology and telecommunications and the Internet.

The head of prime brokerage at Morgan Stanley, Stuart Hendel, has resigned to “pursue outside interests,” according to an internal memo cited in The Wall Street Journal. Hendel is being replaced by Alex Ehrlich, according to the report, who has led prime brokerage services at UBS for the past six years.

Risk management has taken on a whole new meaning after the crazy behavior of markets during the past 18 months.

Cash is flooding into municipal bond mutual funds at a record pace as investors become more comfortable taking on risk and spiriting money out of safe havens. A heartier risk appetite in financial markets has lifted a broad spectrum of asset classes.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering making significant changes to money market mutual funds because there is still a danger that these funds could be unable to meet redemptions when investors begin to step off the sidelines en masse and move back into equity markets.

More actively managed funds-of-funds and mutual fund wrap programs are investing in such safe, low-cost vehicles as index funds and exchange-traded funds, The Globe and Mail reports.

The investment community is hopeful that with a little tweaking, target-date funds could be the ideal solution for getting apathetic investors into an age-appropriate asset allocation.

With pension plans headed for virtual extinction, the 401(k) will inevitably become the sole qualified retirement savings vehicle in the nation, and as such, the defined contribution model must be vastly improved, speakers at the Investment Company Institute's General Membership Meeting in Washington said.

Those hoping for a return to the good old days of self-regulated, self-correcting markets need to face reality: Those days are over.

Putnam Investments has launched the Putnam Capital Spectrum Fund and the Putnam Equity Spectrum Fund, two funds that will invest in a full spectrum of underpriced securities of leveraged companies, including stocks, bonds, bank loans and convertible securities.

With more millionaires loading up on cash and fixed income, financial advisers are revisiting their fee structure, Investment News reports.