Portfolio

Ever since the merger between alternative investment shop Ramius and investment bank Cowen Group in November 2009, the two firms have been looking at ways to integrate and grow Ramius' hedge funds, fund of funds, real estate and cash management businesses.

Financial services software giant SunGard has launched a service for international fund processing and distribution, as part of its overall SunGard Global Network Funds service.

Customization has proved to catapult hedge fund of funds into the institutional limelight of late for many small pension and endowment plan sponsors. However, asset size and back office capabilities are still major determinants on whether the inherit fees are worth the worries of commitment to the alternatives vehicle.

On the first day of June, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.95%, the Standard & Poor's Index 2.18% and the and Nasdaq Composite Index 2.5%. In effect, stock market gains for the year were wiped out. The reason: Jobs.

On June 8, 2012, mutual funds, ETFs experienced outflows of $8 billion.

With Apple shifting its entire retirement plan portfolio to ETFs, will more follow?

June arrived on a positive note for tax-exempt money market funds, which accumulated $1.19 billion in new cash while total net assets rose to $273.64 billion in the week ended June 4, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

The tax-exempt market may have experienced a sizable backup in yields on the week, but muni bond mutual funds still saw robust inflows.

On June 7, 2012, Apple is creating a lot of buzz in the retirement and exchange-traded product space and not because of a new product launch.

On June 7, 2012, Denver-based Curian Capital, LLC added of four new executives to the product development and asset management teams.