Portfolio

Wirehouse advisors are increasingly shunning separate account programs in which securities are directly held in favor of other types of managed accounts that use mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, annuities or other professionally managed securities because they find the latter gives them more flexibility to control their clients' assets, according to a new report from Cerulli Associates.

Dumas, Leeson, Doucet Join Putnam DC Team

DOL Drops Controversial Advice Rule

NEW YORK - Investors and money managers looking to diversify their portfolios by getting into commodities and commodity exchange-traded funds should keep in mind the volatile nature of these products, as well as the wide range of possible risks, experts say.

Two college-savings companies are borrowing a page from the consumer cash-back loyalty playbook, offering customers rebates on services including refinancing mortgages or opening online bank accounts. Futuretrust, a unit of Destination Maternity Corp., and Upromise Investments have partnered with a series of other financial services companies to offer rebates that can be swept into section 529 college-savings plans.

The financial services industry has been pulling in solid profits lately, but experts say firms should be mindful about how they dole out year-end bonuses and to keep the focus on rewarding long-term performance.

Van Eck Global has introduced the Market Vectors Poland ETF, an exchange-traded fund that offers investors pure-play exposure to Poland, the world’s 18th largest economy.

Thirty-eight percent of senior mangers around the world believe the economic crisis will end by the second quarter of next year, Atradius found in a survey of 3,500 executives in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

The use of wiretaps and recordings of conversations to help underpin the insider trading case against the Galleon Group hedge fund struck legal experts as unusual, for an investigation involving the Securities and Exchange Commission.

GAMCO reported that its profits in the third quarter rose 23% to $14.7 million, or 53 cents per fully diluted share, compared to $12 million, or 43 cents per share, a year ago. On a sequential basis, assets under management increased 14.5% from the previous quarter to $24.5 billion.