Practice

The Department of Labor has ruled that financial advisers affiliated with the mutual fund companies administering 401(k) plans can offer advice. However, they must reveal the source of their fees, which will remain constant, regardless of their recommendations. If they use computer models, they must also disclose that.

Reflecting current financial turmoil, most investors are more attuned to whether a company is viable than to its performance, according to the 2009 Investor Brandscape report from Cogent Research.

The events that occurred in the financial services industry over the past year were once thought inconceivable. At this point, regulators are chomping at the bit to reverse how Wall Street does business, and investors are downright spooked. The editors of SourceMedia's business publications offer their views on how these dramatic shifts on Wall Street and in corporate America will impact businesses and investors this year.

NEW YORK - The whole world will be in a recession throughout 2009, economists say, but it will be the U.S. and its strong dollar that lead the world to recovery sometime in 2010.

Millionaires and affluent investors suffered steep losses in 2008, and most, particularly Baby Boomers, are rolling their remaining assets into cash and stable-value investments for the foreseeable future.

A small, but growing number of 401(k) investors, burned by the steep negative returns in 2008, are moving assets into such capital preservation funds as stable-value and money market funds, Mercer Consulting reported.

Eighty-three percent of Americans are concerned about the effects today's economic conditions could have on their ability to retire, with seven in 10 saying it is harder to retire today than it used to be, according to a survey commissioned by the National Institute on Retirement Security.

President-elect Barack Obama's transition team is working closely with House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank and other lawmakers to make sure that municipal debt is included in the federal government's economic recovery programs.

Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin filed an administrative proceeding Tuesday against Reserve Funds and its founder Bruce Bent, accusing them of lying to investors about the dire straights of their investments in Lehman Brothers.

Variable annuity sales sank in 2008 as the stock market's swoon scared investors off.