Portfolio

The State Street Investor Confidence Index, which measures the buying and selling patterns of institutional investors, fell 9.2 points in February to 91.6, down from 100.8 in January. In North America, the index fell 6.8 points to 92.5, down from 99.3.

GE Asset Management has completed its appointment of Highland Funds Asset Management as investment advisor for the GE Funds. GE will serve as sub-advisor to all of the funds except the GE Small-Cap Equity Fund, which uses other third-party sub-advisors.

Putnam Investments announced Tuesday that it is developing an absolute return fund for use in variable annuities and other variable insurance products.

Hershey Trust announced Tuesday that Bryn Mawr Trust will buy its private wealth group.

According to a survey by HSBC, wealthy investors would like to invest more abroad.

The tide of cash washing out of municipal bond mutual funds continued to ebb last week as more and more of the “hot money” that flooded the industry the last two years seems to have escaped by now.

For three days, almost just over 500 and 75 exhibitors came to Weston, Fla., for the T3 Conference. Mike Byrnes of Byrnes Consulting sent some images highlighting the event (including looks at his favorite talks, one booth’s crazy attire and the best evening party.)

Broker-dealers had better be prepared to handle some tough questions on their procedures and controls to mitigate risk and can no longer pass the burdens of meeting SEC requirements to junior managers.

Most people don’t think about it, but there is a liquidity premium on publicly traded securities just as there is a risk premium, yet most only think about it in the case of extremely illiquid assets such as private equity.

Financial advisors at U.S. banks raked in an average of $27,809 in commission and fees in December, up modestly from an average of $27,418 in November thanks mainly to widening spreads between fixed annuities and certificate of deposit rates.