Portfolio

Leona Helmsley, widely regarded as the “Queen of Mean” before she died at age 87 in 2007, left behind a fortune valued by some to be worth $40 to $80 billion. She earmarked twelve million dollars to take care of her dog, Trouble, until the Judge reduced it to a paltry $2 million.

Cortina Asset Management, a Milwaukee-based firm that manages assets for corporations, foundations and pension plans, has put together a new equity team to operate out of its new New York office.

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index fell to -49.4 in the week ended May 15, a nine-month low reflecting a pessimistic outlook among consumers as the cost of fuel and groceries continues to increase.

Russell Investments and Axioma have launched a series of long-only large- and small-cap factor indexes designed to help investors better manage their portfolio’s exposure to five risk factors.

They don't have the big-chip cache of the large-cap funds or the diamond-in-the-rough promise of the small caps, but mid-cap mutual funds have consistently outperformed both of those asset classes over the past decade and there's no reason to think that trend will end anytime soon.

Continuing a comeback after a difficult 2010, annuity sales through banks topped $4 billion in March to reach their highest level since exactly two years earlier, according to research firm Kehrer-LIMRA.

Exchange traded funds continue to gain in popularity with both retail and institutional investors but actively managed ETFs represent only a tiny fraction of the more than $1.1 trillion in assets trading in U.S. ETFs.

They plan to boost their staff by 30% over the next 12 months, Fidelity finds.