Portfolio

The SPARK Institute has sent a comment letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission asking it to modify its proposed 12b-1 fee rule.

The unit of U.K.-based Barclays plc, opened a national U.S. trust company, Barclays Wealth Trustees (U.S.), NA., based in Delaware.

While many advisors are on a behavioral finance kick right now, they don’t necessarily practice the emotion-free rationality they preach to clients.

Americans are underutilizing their 401(k)s, according to a survey of 1,000 participants by the ING Retirement Research Institute. Eighty-seven percent admit they could save an additional 1% of their annual salary, 59% said they could increase it by 3%, and 53% could bump it up by 5%. And for 64%, their 401(k) or other employer-sponsored retirement plan accounts for all, if not the majority, of their retirement savings.

To further round out its index fund and ETF offerings across multiple asset classes, Vanguard has introduced the Vanguard Global ex-U.S. Real Estate Index Fund, which will also have an exchange-traded fund share class.

The new product line covers fund administration.

Build America Bonds have entered a world of their own. As the market braces for a blitz of taxable state and local government debt sales to close out the year, some experts expect the already-shaky correlations between BABs and other assets to break down.

Portfolio managers at the top funds took home an average $4.85 million.

Glenmede Trust's office in New York has helped provide a quick asset boost in the wake of the market crash. The Philadelphia firm has added about $2 billion to its assets under management since the end of 2008, for a total of $18 billion.

Dupree Funds is launching a taxable municipal bond fund this week, just the second effort at creating a mutual fund devoted to Build America Bonds.