Portfolio

For all those bears out there it’s time to turn those frowns upside down.

With stocks up for the seventh consecutive week, Bob Doll, BlackRock chief equity strategist, sees no reason to expect a plunge.

On Wednesday The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund and the Association of Small Foundations announced a new white paper titled “The Best of Both Worlds: Using Private Foundations and Donor-Advised Funds” to inform donors and advisors about how these two giving vehicles complement each other.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management is now offering its private banking clients Cash Management Access Accounts that will allow them to manage banking and self-directed investments in one place.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has censured and fined Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. $500,000 for failing to establish and maintain written supervisory procedures to ensure that its representatives considered customers’ state income-tax benefits in their suitability analyses of 529 college saving plans.

Low interest rates and a market skepticism keep annuities down in 2010, but 2011 looks brighter.

Estate tax reform in 2010 was marked by significant disagreement from both the House and Senate on whether any changes should be temporary or permanent.

Asset managers can use the online resource when preparing a fund launch or moving a fund to a new service provider.

Global equities are benefiting from an increasingly positive outlook by investors, according to the latest BoA Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers.Just over half of fund managers, 55%, say they’re overweight in global equities, the largest proportion since July 2007. Just last month, only 40% of fund managers said they were overweight in international stocks. The additional assets appear to have come from bonds—54% of fund managers are now underweight in bonds, from 47% in December.

The Charles Schwab Corporation announced on Tuesday that fourth quarter revenues soared 14% year-over-year and December net new assets grew to more than $11 billion, the highest level in 23 months.