Practice

Three mutual fund industry leaders, including Investment Company Institute President Paul Schott Stevens, will release new research showing how 401(k) participants are behaving and faring one year after the market calamity of 2008 and outline ways to improve the nation’s retirement system at the National Press Club in Washington on Friday, Jan. 8 at 10 a.m.

Fidelity Investments has expanded the investment options on its Advisors 401(k) platform, in an effort to help its advisors boost their share of the advisor-sold market.

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel in North Carolina has rejected claim of raiding and unfair competition by Wachovia Securities LLC against broker Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Inc., and ordered Wachovia to pay $1.11 million in attorneys’ fees.

Corporate greed, moral hazard, lax oversight and foolhardy underwriting all contributed to the crisis in finance. Another factor, less useful for sloganeers but no less insidious, was the simple mispricing of risk.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is adjusting fees for some transactions as part of its requirement to keep collections stable.

A growing number of employers are planning to incorporate annuities into their 401(k) plans as companies look for ways to provide workers with steady benefits in retirement, according to a survey by Watson Wyatt.

Regulators have agreed to delay plans to treat equity-indexed annuities like securities, but many bank-affiliated brokerages are already doing so.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted rules that substantially increase protections for investors who turn their assets over to investment advisers, which hopefully will prevent another massive, Madoff-like Ponzi scheme.

Industry groups across the independent advisory channel expressed approval over a proposed rule by the Securities and Exchange Commission that would exclude advisors whose only access to client funds is to deduct fees from surprise audits. The groups insist, however, that they are waiting to see the final rule – due out in several days at the earliest – before making any judgments.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., dropped efforts to temporarily extend the estate tax at its current level in the face of Republican opposition.