Portfolio

Donald Yacktman became something of an urban legend 10 years ago when the independent directors of the Yacktman Fund tried to oust him due to their dissatisfaction with his aversion to Internet and technology stocks—and the fund’s 16% decline in 1998 and 1999.

After falling nine percentage points in July, the Rydex Advisor Confidence Index regained that territory in August to end at 104.5, where it had stood in June, according to Rydex/SGI AdvisorBenchmarking.

The Dow’s resurgence this year has convinced many wealthy investors to reinvest their money in equities, but those rich households are still expressing some trepidation about the market’s health.

U.S. multi-manager assets fell by 24.2% to $403.5 billion last year, according to a report on global multi-manager products released by Cerulli Associates.

Combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased 4.0% for the month of July, rising $398.6 billion to reach $10.431 trillion, according to the Investment Company Institute.

A push by institutional investors toward cash helped the total amount of money market mutual funds climb by $1.62 billion to reach $3.579 trillion for the week ending Aug. 27, the Investment Company Institute said.

Billions of dollars continued to flow into municipal bond mutual funds, gaining $1.5 billion for the week ending Aug. 26, according to Lipper FMI.

Bank sales of fixed annuities reached $8.7 billion in the second quarter, according to Beacon Research in Chicago, a drop in sales from $10.9 billion in the first quarter.

The market decline has hit RBC’s wealth management business, which reported a 10% decline in net income to U.S. $288 million in the third quarter from the same period a year ago. The firm said it was largely due to market conditions leading to lower fee-based revenue.

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. has lost its AAA rating by Standard & Poor's, due to the value decline in its asset management units.