Portfolio

Nearly 150 hand-picked and already highly successful Bank of America Merrill Lynch financial advisers next month will embark on what amounts to retirement training boot camp at The Retirement Advisor University (TRAU) in pursuit of a Certified 401(k) Professional designation to further their defined-contributions expertise and differentiate themselves from other DC practitioners.

Global investors have tempered their optimism about the U.S. and world economies and plan to put less of their money in commodities and more into cash, a quarterly poll of 1,263 investors, analysts and traders who are Bloomberg subscribers found.

Edward Jones has added UMA Models to its advisory platform for its 12,000 advisers, Edward Jones Advisory Solutions.

Unless automatic enrollment in 401(k)s and other defined contribution plans becomes universal and savings deferral rates increase substantially, people are going to have significant shortfalls in their retirement nest eggs.

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index fell to -46.9 in the week ended May 8, as rising gas prices are making Americans worried about their personal finances. This was the index’s worst reading since March, Bloomberg said. The comfort index’s range is from -100 to +100.

Janus has launched the Janus Real Return Allocation Fund, which seeks to provide total returns in excess of the rate of inflation over a full market cycle. Janus will co-manage the fund with Armored Wolf.

The group is preparing to judge the inaugural Pro Bono Awards while conducting annual evaluation of grant applications

Unified Managed Accounts skyrocketed over 100% in the last year, and at double the rate of any other segment, but they are still only 6% of the $2 trillion industry.

Reversing a trend of outflows, tax-exempt money market funds raked in $3.33 billion to end the week of May 9 with $309.95 billion in total net assets, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.