Portfolio

Unit investment trusts have their pros and cons but lately investors have been seeing a decided upside in a dividend strategy portfolio.

An overnight poll of 1,000 affluent Americans conducted Thursday evening by UBS Wealth Management Americas found that 40% are waiting out a resolution on the debt ceiling before putting any more money in the markets.

Commenting on Friday’s news from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis that the economy grew an anemic 1.3% in the second quarter, The Conference Board said that from a business cycle perspective, there still aren’t signs that the economy has re-entered a recession. However, the business research organization does not expect GDP to grow more than 2% in the remaining half of the year.

As the nation reaches the Aug. 2 deadline to raise the debt ceiling, Fidelity Investments is telling investors not to panic-sell out of stock and bond funds, and to have confidence in money market funds, which have been safeguarded and have complied with stricter holding rules for the past year.

A majority, 63%, of middle-class Americans thinks that the U.S. is in a double-dip recession, the First Command Financial Behaviors Index shows. Fifty-percent thought the U.S. had reverted back into recession last summer.

MassMutual has made a number of enhancements to its RetireSMART target-date and lifecycle funds, most notably adding mutual fund options to its target-date series. Previously, only separately managed accounts through a group annuity contract were offered as target-date funds.

U.S. ETFs are on a roll so far in 2011, according to State Street Global Advisors, which released its 2011 mid-year ETF outlook report on Thursday.

MassMutual has made a number of enhancements to its RetireSMART target-date and lifecycle funds, most notably adding mutual fund options to its target-date series. Previously, only separately managed accounts through a group annuity contract were offered as target-date funds.

Lately, I've seen more and better thinking about asset management than you could find in the previous 20 years in the profession and I think it may be time to give modern portfolio theory a makeover. In fact, I think this fits a long-standing historical pattern.

Federated Investors has absorbed $100.6 million in assets from the Tributary International Equity Fund and merged them into the Federated International Leaders Fund, a fund will a similar mandate and that invests in high-quality foreign companies that appear to be undervalued.