Portfolio

Despite a jump from 2008 lows, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 1500 companies saw little change in their pension plans funded status last year, a new study claims.

When bankers first started pushing for the concept of the financial supermarket 30 years ago, they lacked the regulatory permission and the technological know-how to succeed. Then, in the 1990s, the mutual fund industry followed suit with web-based, full-service fund supermarkets.

Insitutional broker-dealer M.S. Howell has opened an RIA division, as all eyes focus on the ability of smaller firms to survive.

The House on Friday voted 215 to 204 to approve legislation that would extend the Build America Bond program for two years, while gradually reducing the subsidy payments the federal government makes to BAB issuers.

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CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—Banks expect hybrid annuities that include long-term-care riders to be the next hot product on brokerage platforms as soon as product providers ramp up their offerings in this area, said Scott Stathis, Kehrer-LIMRA’s chief operating officer and managing director, speaking at the company’s Annuity Product Management Roundtable here.

In their attempts to mend the “rattled” investor trust in the alternative space, funds-of-funds managers are planning to utilize transparency and examine their fee structures moving forward, a new study claims.

BALTIMORE—The uncertainty and confusion around the fiduciary standard has jolted the financial services industry leading hundreds to pack the rooms at FINRA’s annual conference in Baltimore.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun mailing out questionnaires to 401(k) plan sponsors to assess compliance with retirement plan regulations.

BOSTON -- Money Management Executive Publisher Michael Stanton presented the 2010 Fund Operations Awards on May 20 at NICSA's General Membership Meeting at the Downtown Harvard Club here.