Alternative investments

Wealthy wine and art lovers are buying up cases of Bordeaux and Picassos with the hope of offsetting the general market downturn, Reuters reports.

The wealth management unit of Citigroup Inc. has agreed to buy Legg Mason Inc.’s managed account trading and technology operations.

Only a minority of financial institutions are actively promoting health savings accounts.

Predictions that the mutual fund industry will embrace elaborate alternative strategies, driven in part by European regulatory changes, may be a bit preliminary, according to some state-side asset management executives.

In joining the parade of mainstream wealth managers starting alternative investments units, MFS Investments of Boston is making a long-term commitment to giving its institutional investors access to emerging hedge fund managers.

In their zeal to cash in on the latest investment craze, fund companies all too often have displayed a lack of originality and bad timing when launching new funds. Since exchange-traded funds have taken all of the major indexes, those that have come late to the ETF rage have come out with incredibly narrow niche and enhanced index funds that defy logic.

In their zeal to cash in on the latest investment craze, fund companies all too often have displayed a lack of originality and bad timing when launching new funds. Since exchange-traded funds have taken all of the major indexes, those that have come late to the ETF rage have come out with incredibly narrow niche and enhanced index funds that defy logic.

Most alternative investment products are neither well-understood nor on the shopping lists of affluent investors with $500,000 or more investable assets. Moreover, fewer than one-third discuss including alternative investments in their portfolios with financial advisers.