Alternative investments

CHICAGO - In the coming weeks and months, financial officials and members of Congress will be scrambling to revisit a spate of sunsetting tax and accounting laws before the new presidential administration and Congress take over next year.

The phone lines were jammed at financial advisers’ offices throughout the week as average investors called to find out just what the heck was happening on Wall Street.

Dreyfus is planning to offer the Dreyfus Sustainability Fund, a capital growth fund that will invest in environmentally friendly companies that are committed to “sustainable operating practices, products and services,” a Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows.

Fidelity Investments reached agreements with New York and Massachusetts officials to buy back at par $300 million of auction-rate securities from its customers by the end of the year, becoming the first retail brokerage firm to settle alleged fraudulent sales practices in the ARS market.

Fidelity will buy back $300 million worth of auction-rate securities from its brokerage customers, according to the Associated Press, citing an individual close to the talks. In so doing, it will settle an investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and the announcement could possibly be made this afternoon.

Taking dead-aim at Middle America, Allstate Corp. has added guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits to its target funds.

MINNEAPOLIS - Sen. John McCain is the better choice for the financial services industry not for what he would do as president, but rather for what he would refrain from doing, GOP lawmakers said here this week during the Republican National Convention.

An obscure book about mutual funds has begun to arouse the ire of the industry.

AUSTIN, Texas - Making sure your company's 403(b) retirement plan is in compliance by Jan. 1, 2009 can be a daunting task, especially if you haven't gotten started yet.

Although Roth 401(k) features became effective Jan. 1, 2006, few employers immediately implemented them, since they were new and recordkeepers were still developing systems to accommodate the new feature.

The unified managed account (UMA) market’s rapid growth will not continue without greater standardization and automation, says a Dover Financial Research report issued Wednesday and commissioned by Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC).

Evergreen Investments of Boston, Wachovia Corp.'s asset management arm, announced Sept. 4 that it has closed its family of fund of funds.

By increasing the number of alternative products and strategies it offers, Mellon Capital Management Corp. has generated inflows in the past three years, despite difficult market conditions.

PIMCO has named Mohamed El-Erian chief executive officer, a position he currently shares as co-CEO with Bill Thompson, who will be retiring at the end of the year.

Pioneer Investments has selected Brian E. Stack as manager of the Pioneer Growth Opportunities Fund. A 21-year veteran of the mutual fund industry, Stack has specialized in small- and mid-cap growth.

The number of affluent households in the United States has decreased, according to initial research from the annual Affluent Market Research Program by TNS, a marketing company based in New York.

Currency hedge funds reported an 0.11% loss in July, according to the Parker FX Index.

Pacific Investment Management Co. will add an actively managed bond exchange-traded fund to its current ETF lineup, and perhaps other types of active ETFs, The Wall Street Journal reports.

In a new effort to fund health savings accounts, the Internal Revenue Service recently issued guidance on subsidizing HSAs with money from individual retirement accounts.

Goldman Sachs has gained approval to launch mutual funds in India, joining AIG and JPMorgan, Reuters reports.Adam Broder will lead Goldman Sachs Asset Management Company (India) Pvt Ltd, with Prashant Khemka taking the chief investment officer post, according to a statement from Goldman."India is one of the most important countries to our Asian business and we have a long-term strategic commitment to this market," Broder said.According to data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India, the country's 35 member funds industry managed about $125 billion at the end of July.