Tommy Fernandez

U.S. debt yields put you asleep. But you better be on your toes, with the adventure involved in emerging market bonds.

Morningstar has unveiled a medal count for the 106 funds covered under its new Morningstar Analyst Ratings, with five funds garnering Gold; 22 earning Silver, and 39 netting Bronze. Rounding out the rankings, 38 funds receiving Neutral ratings and two received negative.

Custom target-date strategies will hold 22% of 401(k) target-date assets by 2016, or $218 billion, according to research from Cerulli Associates. That will be a nearly four-fold increase from the 2011 asset level of $46.4 billion.

U.S. exchnage-traded funds assets totaled $1.12 trillion as of May 31 – up 7% year-to-date, according to the ETF Snapshot May 2012 released by State Street Global Advisors.

Morgan Retirement Plan Services, the retirement plan record keeping business of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, has hired Bill McDermott in a newly created role as head of sales and client solutions.

Altegris Advisors has launched the Altegris Equity Long Short Fund (ELSAX), designed to generate and capture alpha on the long and short side of the equity markets, predominantly US stocks.

If you think social media investing is about pajama-wearing day-trading amateurs, Covestor aims to prove you wrong.

Neuberger Berman has launched the Neuberger Berman Long Short Fund, designed to provide investors with a long-short investment strategy that seeks long-term capital appreciation and principal preservation.

FINRA has hired Robert Colby as its chief legal officer, replacing the broker regulating body's general counsel, Grant Callery, and its general counsel for regulation, Marc Menchel.

Exchange-traded funds remain the young darlings of the alternative investing universe and one company is enjoying a booming business introducing this format to asset managers.

The exchange-traded product market saw net new assets of $600 million in April, according to BlackRock.

Integrity Viking Funds has launched the Integrity Dividend Harvest Fund, designed to offer investors a stable source of income and the potential for capital appreciation via a portfolio focusing on dividend-paying stocks of companies that have a history of raising their dividends.

Fifty-one percent of retirees, but only 25%, of today’s workers, are confident about having enough money to live comfortably in retirement, according to a BlackRock study.

Mutual funds that invest in domestic stocks have been an object of scorn.

The company has unveiled two new asset allocation portfolios and two new sub-advisors.

BlackRock iShares Exchange Traded Funds business has launched a suite of high yield corporate debt ETFs.

Total assets under management for target maturity funds reached a record high in the first quarter of 2012, or $429 billion, according to a Morningstar report.

TAMRO Capital has launched the TAMRO Small Cap Collective Fund, which is sponsored by Global Trust Company and available to ERISA-only clients

Two British twins in their teens bilked $3 million from American investors and stock promoters with tales of using a sophisticated bot to pick stocks, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The financial research and consulting organization LIMRA has hired Alison Salka to serve as corporate vice president and director of its retirement research division.