Portfolio

With Sept. 15 marking the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the shocking revelation of Reserve Funds’ $785 million exposure to the debt, fund executives are taking a retrospective look at the historical run on money funds.

John Hancock Funds has launched the John Hancock Technical Opportunities Fund, which will use an unconstrained, bottom-up technical approach to rigorously select stocks. Additionally, the fund manager will have license to put 100% of the fund’s assets in cash.

Broadridge and NewRiver have partnered on summary prospectuses to offer clients a complete solution, with Broadridge offering print-on-demand and New River a database of digital mutual fund prospectuses and reports.

Due to a normal rate of redemptions in the Hartford MidCap Value Fund, The Hartford Mutual Funds is reopening the $476 million fund, which had been closed since 2004.

Morningstar is offering advisers in-depth research reports for 20 of the largest target-date mutual fund series, based on five components making up the “five P’s”: People, Parent, Performance, Portfolio and Price. A pared-down version is also available to individual investors.

President Obama outlined a series of initiatives the federal government would take to help people boost their retirement savings.

Hedge funds returned 1.85% in August, beating only the Nasdaq’s 1.54% returns. The Dow rose 3.54% in the month, followed by the S&P 500’s 3.36% increase, according to Hennessee Group.

Given the volatility of the past two decades in the stock market, starting with the 1987 market crash and ending with last year’s 40% meltdown, investment managers and financial advisers are beginning to update their portfolio risk management systems with stress tests that account for extreme events, The Wall Street Journal reports.

One of the biggest mysteries to emerge from the recession is why investors have stuck with their 401(k) in the face of a 55% market decline between October 2007 and March 2009.

PIMCO has joined the retirement income race with its Real Income Funds, a suite of mutual funds that ladder investments in TIPS to serve as an anchor for retirees' portfolios by offering them steady monthly income, inflation hedging and liquidity.