Practice

Although it has been three years since Janus paid $226 million to settle market-timing charges, the Securities and Exchange Commission has taken three former Janus executives, Warren Lammert, Lars Soderberg and Lance Newcomb, to trial in Denver for market timing.

WisdomTree Retirement Services, a unit of WisdomTree Investments of New York, is the latest firm to launch a platform designed for the 401(k) market that offers plan sponsors a combination of ETFs and mutual funds, or a selection of all ETFs combined into preset portfolios.

Fines, being barred from the industry and even facing years behind bars evidently won't deter some market timers looking for a quick, sure buck.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled its lawsuit against Mutuals.com and two related investment advisors, Connely Dowd Management and MTT Fundcorp, along with the firms' three principals, Richard Sapio, Eric McDonald and Michele Leftwich.

Four fund firms that manage closed-end funds were sanctioned and fined a collective $1.7 million on Sept. 28 by the Securities and Exchange Commission for not properly disclosing the true nature of shareholder distributions made under their fund's managed distribution plans.

Automatic enrollment and automatic escalation will be the two most significant developments of defined contribution plans over the next three years, according to 401(k) plan advisers polled by Putnam Investments.

Fines, being barred from the industry and even facing years behind bars evidently won't deter some market timers looking for a quick, sure buck.

Determined to carve out its stake in the coming Baby Boomer retirement rush hour, Fidelity Investments of Boston has just unveiled a pair of brand new retirement income solutions designed to work together or separately. The products-a family of income-producing mutual funds-of-funds and a variable annuity guaranteeing income-were two years in the making, Fidelity officials said.

The President's Working Group on Financial Markets will form two private-sector groups to develop best practices for the hedge fund industry, and while it comes far short of requiring hedge funds to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission, this is welcome news, both for investors and the market.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged five former portfolio managers of two registered investment advisory firms, LP Advisors and Freedom Capital, with allowing hedge fund clients to late trade mutual funds in 2002 and 2003. The five are David Byck, William Cole, Charles Irwin, Michael Price and Jay Sumner.