Portfolio

According to LIMRA’s Guaranteed Income Annuities report released on Monday, women buy six of every 10 immediate annuity contracts, a significant chunk of the $250 billion annuitization market.

The average 401(k) retirement account rose nearly 32%, 31.9%, in 2009, according to a report issued Monday by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and the Investment Company Institute. The average balance among those who consistently contributed to their 401(k) plan reached $109,723 at year-end 2009, up from $61.106 at year-end 2003—for an annual growth rate of 10.5%.

Absolute-return funds may only comprise $140 billion, a scant 1.2% of the $11.26 trillion in mutual funds, but that will grow to 10% to 15% over the next decade, predicts Putnam Investments President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Reynolds.

Stephen Wedel, an LPL adviser and founding partner of Four Seasons Wealth Management in St. Louis, is gathering a lot of assets by investing his clients' money in alternatives, including non-traded real estate investment trusts, oil-and-gas limited partnerships, managed futures and private equity.

Skittish investors withdrew a stunning $3.107 billion from municipal bond mutual funds in the week ending Nov. 17 — the single worst week of outflows and the largest departure of cash in 10 years, according to weekly fund flow data from Lipper FMI.

College savings funds have slashed fees this year, Morningstar reports, making them worth another look.

Just when the advisory community was hoping that it had put Bernie Madoff behind it, federal authorities announced that two of the disgraced financier’s lieutenants have been indicted on criminal charges and are also facing a civil complaint from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Meanwhile, the Internal Revenue Service announced earlier this week that it has withdrawn the John Doe summons in the UBS AG scandal in which the U.S. demanded that the company hand over…

Fixed annuities give way to variable annuity and mutual fund sales, but September was nothing to write home about.

College savings funds have slashed fees this year, Morningstar reports, making them worth another look.

Many active fund managers get paid to predict where the market is headed—and to get there a step or two ahead of their rivals.But the management of Allianz Global Investors’ Global Investment Solutions Conservative Allocation mutual fund has shunned that approach, and in doing so achieved remarkable success.