Portfolio

How a portfolio sage and fundamental index founder bet right on the market and still lost money.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. has been selected to launch and manage a new advisor-sold 529 college savings program in Connecticut, the state’s treasurer announced Wednesday.

While annuity sales are down for the first half of the year overall, second-quarter sales go a long way to closing the gap.

Mutual of Omaha is holding 401(k) sales seminars, or boot camps, for advisers to 401(k) plans over the next year. The first six cities where the seminars will be held are Lansing, Mich., Pittsburgh, Orlando, Minneapolis, Kansas City and Dallas. Following the seminars, participants will receive a year’s worth of educational e-newsletters, and access to webinars and tools.

CHET Advisor is the first advisor-sold 529 plan sponsored by the state. TIAA-CREF will continue to run the Connecticut Higher Education Trust, a direct-sold 529 college savings plan first launched in 1998.

To help investors take advantage of opportunities created by shifting financial trends, Russell Investments has launched the Russell Global Infrastructure Fund and the Russell Global Credit Strategies Fund and added the two to the Russell LifePoints Funds Target Portfolio Series and the Russell Core Model Strategies.

Municipal market participants should not expect the Treasury Department to simply rubber-stamp the existing tax-exempt bond rules for issue price when it comes to Build America Bonds, a Treasury official told bond lawyers at a recent meeting.

Driving the optimism are portfolio gains over the past year for 44% of investors, Scottrade found.

Another $3 billion leaves equity funds.

Sectors’ business fundamentals may remain the same, but variations in strategy seen in response to economic turmoil, growth mandates, notes Robert E. Nolan report.