Alternative investments

Charles Schwab has announced that the Charles Schwab Trust Company (CSTC) will offer target-date collective trust funds for retirement plans.

Below-average results are really starting to hurt investors, but new research by Rik Frehen, a Dutch finance scholar, suggests that mutual funds are not bound to under perform or be overshadowed by pension funds. The trick is to not follow the trends of buying and selling based on short-term emotions, but instead to be patient and think more about the long term.

Fidelity Investments has hired Michael Wilens, a senior executive at Thomson Reuters, to head the mutual fund company’s $1.5 trillion asset management division.

TIAA-CREF has launched a new service to help sponsors of 403(b) retirement plans meet new Internal Revenue Service requirements by Jan. 1, 2009.

NEW YORK – Timothy Geithner, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, called for substantial reforms to the structure of the regulatory system of the U.S.

While Morningstar certainly has carved out its niche and made a name for itself arming individual investors with mutual fund data and insight, the company plans to increase its focus on financial advisers and institutions, or the “pros” eager to pay for quality research. That’s according to an interview with Morningstar CEO Joe Mansueto in this week’s issue of BusinessWeek.

David Glaser, co-head of investment banking at Bear Stearns, is the latest of several of his former colleagues to join Bank of America.

With the dollar beaten down - 7% against the euro and 6% against the yen so far this year - fund companies are offering investors the opportunity to invest in exchange-traded funds that invest in foreign currencies, The Wall Street Journal reports.

NEW YORK - Days before the European Union celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Euro last week, Dechert LLP held a widely popular seminar here on the how-to's of Undertakings for Collective Investment Trusts, or UCITS, which have been growing at a rapid pace not only on the Continent, but also in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.

Big changes are brewing in the 403(b) world. For the first time in 40 years, the Internal Revenue Service is mandating new requirements that aim to make the plans more like 401(k)s.

NEW YORK - Although the summer has only just begun, it was "Back to School" last week here at a State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) seminar for financial advisers, on the finer points of exchange-traded funds.

NEW YORK - As the turbulent economy begins to calm down, investors will likely gravitate toward index-based, middle-of-the-road mutual funds, opening the door for opportunists to sweep up bargains, industry experts say. And the safer, the better.

As Citigroup looks to restore confidence and drive up its profits, rumors are circulating that the financial giant has received the first round of bids for its mutual fund and insurance sales unit, Primerica Financial Services.

Money market mutual funds assets rose by $18.06 billion to $3.520 trillion for the week ending June 5, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Wachovia Corp. says its retail retirement group is drawing assets by having advisers work face to face with customers at every income level to create a retirement plan.

Millionaires became slightly more optimistic about the future of the U.S. economy in May, according to Spectrem's Millionaire Investor Index.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has a pair of initiatives designed to strengthen its position in the asset management market.

Moody’s has placed the triple-A insurer financial strength ratings for Ambac Assurance Corp. and MBIA Insurance Corp. on review for a possible downgrade.

As Big Brown gets ready for his big day Saturday at the Belmont Stakes, his owners and financiers are already counting their predicted earnings.

Two titans of fundamentally weighted indexes are being compared to the funds they created, in the hopes of stirring up a little excitement.