Portfolio

ShareBuilder 401(k), which serves small businesses with a lineup primarily of exchange-traded funds, is offering pricing discounts for plans as they reach savings milestones of $1 million, $2 million and $5 million. For those businesses with plan assets of $5 million or more, the company doesn’t charge any administration fee and reduces asset management fees to less than 50 basis points.

But several positive indicators point to a pickup in deals in 2010.

AllianceBernstein has pledged up to $500,000 to aid victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

ProFunds has launched two exchange-traded funds that will leverage U.S. Treasuries, the ProShares Ultra 20+ Year Treasury and ProShares Ultra 7-10 Year Treasury funds.

Sixty-five percent of 160 socially responsible mutual funds from members of the Social Investment Forum outperformed their benchmarks in 2009, most by significant margins, the forum said.

Lower participation in employee-sponsored retirement plans is proving to be the challenge.

Investors Flee Cash in Droves

Long-term equity, bond and hybrid funds reaped $14.35 billion in the week ended Jan. 13, bringing the 44-week sales streak total to $441 billion, the Investment Company Institute said.

The leading mutual fund brand in the nation is Vanguard and the leading distributor is Charles Schwab, 4,000 affluent and high-net-worth investors told Cogent Research in a recent survey. In both categories, Fidelity, which had previously held first place since Cogent started the research in 2006, was knocked to second.

Third-quarter annuity commissions rose 12.9% to $669.8 million from the previous quarter.