Portfolio

It's official: The 60-week-long, $600 billion-strong, steady sales streak for mutual funds is over.

The nadir of the economic downturn ravaged many American families’ college savings accounts, sending balances down almost 50%, according to Deborah Fox, founder of Fox College Funding. It frustrated investors, but it also prompted some to become more educated about the fees associated with 529 plans.

NEW YORK-After getting burned by the financial crisis in 2008, many investors have decided to sit on the sidelines instead of jumping back into equities. But Putnam Investments said at its mid-year equity markets briefing Tuesday at the St. Regis Hotel it sees the uncertainty in the financial markets as an opportunity.

Bank Investment Consultant Magazine's Top 20 Program Managers Awards honored program managers who bring out the best in their advisors. At a dinner sponsored by New York Life/Mainstay Investments in New York last week, the awards program celebrated managers whose advisors perform well above industry benchmarks.

After getting burned by the financial crisis in 2008, many investors have decided to sit on the sidelines instead of jumping back into equities. But Putnam Investments said at its mid-year equity markets briefing Tuesday in New York that it sees the uncertainty in the financial markets as an opportunity.

As the last ten years have demonstrated, buy-and-hold may be logically sound, but it may no longer be a viable investment strategy.

Plan managers hope lower prices lure back savers who are savvier — and more wary — of fees.

The reform bill that appears headed to enactment is designed to address problems that produced the 2008 financial crisis. A major premise behind the legislation seems to be that the crisis resulted in large part from regulators’ lack of adequate tools. Thus the bill provides the Securities and Exchange Commission, the primary regulator of mutual funds, and the Federal Reserve Board with even greater authority than they now possess. It also creates entirely new regulatory bodies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

Federal regulators would spend months, if not years, implementing the sweeping changes to the municipal market that were outlined in the financial regulatory reform legislation finalized by House and Senate negotiators late last week.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said it effected an "emergency asset freeze" against a 'purported fund manager' based in the U.S. Virgin Islands.