Portfolio

BOSTON -- Longtime industry veteran Dan Fuss, the 76-year-old vice chairman and managing director of Loomis, Sayles & Co., knows that the Federal Reserve has to raise interest rates eventually. This could dramatically affect credit spreads, yield curves and other macroeconomic issues. But until such a move takes place, there is no need to get excited.

Wherever the money's going, it's not going to municipal bond mutual funds.

As the private-label mortgage bond market comes back to life, real estate investment trusts may play the lucrative central role that belonged to banks and Wall Street firms during securitization's pre-crisis heyday.

The 30th anniversary of the first 401(k) savings plan which I designed is rapidly approaching on Jan. 1, 2011, making this an appropriate time to briefly consider how 401(k) has impacted our retirement system.

Treasury Offers Interim Tax-Credit Bond Guidance

In 2011, 401(k) plans will turn 30, but the milestones the mutual fund industry has reached in this time are but a nanosecond in the history of U.S. retirement policy.

The majority of dollars that wealthy investors formerly allocated to workplace-based retirement accounts like 401(k)s and 403(b)s are now being poured into individual retirement accounts, according to a report by Cogent Research LLC.

A recent survey of 401(k) practices found that 68% of employers allow employees to contribute 25% or more of their earnings into their 401(k) plan, according to marketing research company Business and Legal Resources.

Consider that 97% of the world’s water is the salty variety; another 2% is frozen in the ice caps; and of the remaining 1%, the vast majority, is currently underground. This means that there is a lot of potential investment opportunities in water.

By setting up municipal sales desks in foreign offices 10 years ago, top-ranked underwriter Citi had a head start in selling taxable munis to foreign investors, which turned out to be a major boon once Build America Bonds were introduced last year.