Portfolio

The Schwab IMPACT 2012 Conference opened Tuesday in Chicago. The annual gathering of independent investment advisors, now in its 21st year, will go on through Friday bringing together the industry’s best and brightest advisors.

Change is in the air for money market funds and this time it looks like proposed reforms, in whatever form they may take, are going to stick.

“The financial advisor is critical, as he or she has the job of opening the estate and trust accounts," Peter Lang wrote in a white paper. "This can only be done once the will has been probated, the executor has been appointed, and a Tax Identification Number has been issued by the IRS.”

The Board of Trustees of the Praxis Core Stock Fund has decided to fold it into the Praxis Growth Index Fund citing poor performance on the part of the Stock fund, according to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Thirty-seven percent of investors say they are now refraining from investing in stocks because of current economic or market conditions, and as many as 76% of investors say they are only somewhat or not at all willing to take on more risk to obtain a potentially higher yield.

Invesco Distributors, the US distributor for Invesco Ltd.'s retail mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and institutional money market funds, has launched an iPad app for advisors who work with defined contribution retirement plans.

Robert Hagstrom has joined Legg Mason Investment Counsel as Chief Investment Strategist, responsible for communicating Legg Mason Investment Counsel’s strategies and market views.

Equities stand to benefit from a boost in the housing market and stabilization in Europe while fixed income could lag come 2013.

Thomson Reuters has launched a benchmarking product to help custodian banks with performance measurement analytics, and Northern Trust has signed up as the first service provider to adopt the indices for its institutional fund servicing clients.

Principal Global Investor has named Mihail Dobrinov head of the emerging market equities team, responsible for the management of $9.3 billion in assets, including portfolio management of the $1.62 billion Principal International Emerging Markets fund and $1.8 billion in Asian regional mandates.