Alternative investments

RiverSource Investments, American Century Investments and OppenheimerFunds have received "F" grades from a Morningstar analyst for failing to explain recent changes to shareholders and adding to the paranoia of already shaken investors.

Reports that U.S. Sens. Carl Levin's and Charles Grassley's new bill on hedge fund regulation will force funds to publicize the names of clients are untrue, the senators said.

With other safe investments paying so little these days, it's hard to ignore the glowing rates that some insurance companies are guaranteeing on long-term fixed deferred annuities.

Remember when markets were rising, profits were strong and fund distribution was all about having a large wholesaling staff, generous compensation programs to incent wholesalers and support staff to track sales and calculate payouts?

The influx of money into Treasuries, combined with record-low interest rates, has driven the yields of Treasury money market funds so low that rather than risk breaking the buck, many funds are now turning away new money, MarketWatch reports.

Calls for greater oversight of the investment advisory profession continued last week, with key congressional leaders pushing the industry to come up with changes designed to prevent future fraud schemes similar to that of the Madoff case.

NEW YORK - Despite the terrible news about most stocks and mutual funds, investors should heed Sophocles' warning and "don't kill the messenger."

State Street Corp. said assets under administration serviced by its private-equity fund team increased 60% last year.

Already, many believe that there is a killing to be made in underpriced mortgage-backed securities. Evidently, one of those investors is PowerShares Capital Management, which has filed two actively managed exchange-traded funds with the SEC. The funds will invest in both prime and alt-a mortgages, but not sub-prime mortgages.

If money managers want to invest in this highly volatile, largely negative financial environment, they must change the way they invest.

Mistakes, bad luck and unexpected events can happen to any firm during good times and bad, but tackling misfortune in a forthright, brutally honest manner rather than trying to sidestep unpleasant truths can mean the difference between a small crisis and a full-blown public relations nightmare.

Fair value reporting seemed anything but fair last October when prices fell off a cliff.

Investors overwhelmingly believe that environmental issues offer tremendous long-term investing opportunities, Allianz Global Investors found in a survey of 1,264 adults with household financial assets of at least $100,000 in December.

Despite a more than 40% decline in Chinese funds last year, Toronto-based Manulife Financial is determined to launch a mutual fund business in China before the end of the year.

Forward Management LLC is offering investors exposure to frontier markets with the launch of its new Accessor Frontier Markets Fund.

Money market mutual fund assets ended their record climb, falling $28.95 billion to settle at $3.893 trillion for the week ending Jan. 21, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Investment research analyst Ian Jacobs, who has worked at Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. since 2003, is reportedly planning to launch his own fund on March 1.

BlackRock, the world’s largest publicly traded asset manager, reported a 84% decline in fourth-quarter income, to $53 million, for full-year 2008 net income of $786 million, a 21% decline.

Reflecting current financial turmoil, most investors are more attuned to whether a company is viable than to its performance, according to the 2009 Investor Brandscape report from Cogent Research.

The events that occurred in the financial services industry over the past year were once thought inconceivable. At this point, regulators are chomping at the bit to reverse how Wall Street does business, and investors are downright spooked. The editors of SourceMedia's business publications offer their views on how these dramatic shifts on Wall Street and in corporate America will impact businesses and investors this year.