Portfolio

Sixty-one percent of leading mutual fund companies are taking advantage of the provision in the 2010 Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act that allows investors to convert a traditional IRA to a Roth, by proactively educating investors, a Corporate Insight analysis found.

Bullish sentiment toward equities has shifted from Europe to America and Japan, according to a BoA Merrill Lynch fund manager survey.

HSBC Global Asset Management is planning a UCITS III European absolute-return fund, the HSBC GIF European Alpha Equity Fund, scheduled to debut next month. The fund will use both quantitative and qualitative factors in a market-neutral strategy to invest in stocks, equity swaps and short positions in developed European nations.

Citing the elimination of doubt about the healthcare reform bill by its historic passage on Sunday, Legg Mason Chairman and Chief Investment Officer Bill Miller believes healthcare stocks will benefit from the new bill in the near-term, but as higher taxes kick in, the overall market could suffer, Reuters reports.

IndexIQ is the latest provider to join in on the trend, offering Canadian and Australian small-cap ETFs, the first two in a series of such single-country funds.

Data integrity is the No. 1 concern for the 86% of the 130 C-suite fund executives from North America and Europe that Confluence surveyed, and 89% said consolidating fund administration data into a common database is critical.

Data integrity is the No. 1 concern for the 86% of the 130 C-suite fund executives from North America and Europe that Confluence surveyed, and 89% said consolidating fund administration data into a common database is critical.

Charles Schwab filed arguments in federal court in San Francisco on March 19 to try to preclude the Securities and Exchange Commission from suing it over its YieldPlus fund, which had nearly 50% of its assets in mortgage-backed securities, Bloomberg reports.

While the news on the healthcare reform is filled with backslapping from one political party and hand wringing from the other, the truth for advisers and their clients is that this historic legislation might be as much an investment opportunity as anything else.

A few employers are beginning to offer eldercare as a benefit, realizing that many Baby Boomers have parents in need of a much-needed lifeline. In fact, 19% of Americans over the age of 18 are caring for someone 50 or older, according to the National Alliance for Caregiving.