Portfolio

NEW YORK - Selling retirement income guarantees after a recession is like selling flood insurance after a flood. Timing is everything, and currently the timing could not be better.

The U.S. division of Sun Life Financial on Nov. 1 launched its first brand and marketing campaign, “Get to Know Sun Life,” comprised of television, print, online ads and a home website containing social media channels. The campaign, aimed at both investors and financial advisers, stresses the company’s 144-year history.

Although the Supreme Court appeared hesitant to intervene significantly on determining appropriate mutual fund fees as the Jones v. Harris Associates case began Monday, the justices appeared interested in setting a clearer standard on fees, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Among the many voices weighing in on the mutual fund fee case the Supreme Court heard on Monday, Jones v. Harris Associates, are John Bogle, founder of Vanguard, and former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins, who, predictably, respectively side with investors and the industry.

Index mutual and exchange-traded funds tied to the S&P 500 Index vary widely on performance, cost and risk, Standard & Poor’s found.

Barclays Global Investors’ iShares exchange-traded funds group has selected two McCann Worldwide advertising agencies, McCann Erickson and MRM Worldwide, to develop a fully integrated campaign to drive awareness, understanding and use of iShares ETFs among financial advisers and institutional investors.

Money market fund assets fell by $2.27 billion in the week ended Oct. 21, bringing the total number of assets to $3.37 trillion, the Investment Company Institute said.

No shareholder has won a lawsuit against a mutual fund company on excessive fees since the standard for arms-length negotiations was set by Gartenberg v. Merrill Lynch in 1982, and the Jones v. Harris Associates case scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court on Monday is not expected to reverse that.

Volatile redemptions from and investments in mutual funds are not just due to market returns but to an entirely different approach investors are taking to fund ownership, according to a new report from ReFlow.

Forty-six percent of those leaving a job in 2008 tapped into their 401(k), maintaining an “alarmingly high” rate of people cashing in since 2005, Hewitt Associates said. Sixty-percent of those cashing in were in their 20s, and 33% were in their 50s.