Portfolio

The percentage of investors who believe they’re in a better financial position today than they were two years ago rose to 43% in the first quarter, compared with 33% in the last quarter of 2011.

BlackRock Investments Canada Inc. has appointed Mary Anne Wiley managing director and head of its combined exchange-traded fund business, replacing Som Seif, founder and chief executive of the recently-acquired Claymore Investments, Inc.

Here’s an interactive slide show featuring the 5 worst-performing Dow stocks so far this year.

The moment was remarkable, if not dramatic.

Invesco’s shareholders of the Invesco High Income Municipal Fund and the Invesco U.S. Mid Cap Value Fund have approved a plan to merge those funds into the Invesco Van Kampen High Yield Municipal Fund and Invesco Van Kampen American Value Fund.

SEI, a provider of investment processing, fund processing, and investment management business outsourcing services, has appointed Stephen Beinhacker as Global Head of Equities for SEI's Investment Management Unit.

Financial advisors such as Matthew Tuttle represent the front lines of raging conflict between mutual funds and exchange-traded products, in particular over management fees and related costs.

Stewart Capital Advisors, LLC, the investment advisor for Stewart Capital Mutual Funds, said that it has made the Stewart Capital Mid Cap Fund available as a no-load mutual fund effective April 1.

RiverPark Advisors LLC, a New York-based investment advisory company, has launched the RiverPark Long/Short Opportunity Fund, an open-end mutual fund that was converted from an existing hedge fund launched in October 2009.

Municipal bond defaults in early 2012 were up dramatically — or down dramatically — depending on how you look at the data.