Portfolio

Ninety percent of American investors are frustrated about financial losses in the past year, according to “Make the Move,” a survey by the Charles Schwab Corp. One in four is considering leaving their current financial services firm and/or financial adviser.

A U.S. district court has given investors in the Reserve Funds’ Primary Fund until July 22 to object to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s plan to distribute assets on a pro rata basis. Of the fund’s original $63 billion in assets, $4.55 billion has yet to be returned to investors.

The rapid increase in bankruptcies in the U.S. could result in more abandoned retirement plans, which occurs when a company goes out of business and assets in a defined contribution plan are left at a custodian or mutual fund company that is not authorized to distribute the monies.

With Putnam Investments, Legg Mason and Invesco AIM recently rolling out absolute-return funds that promise an upside regardless of the market’s condition, some wonder if that is possible.

Congress once again is scrutinizing 401(k)s this week, this time through two bills that would disallow advice through an interested party and require clear disclosure of fees.

For most Baby Boomers, even younger ones, the recession has done such a number on their retirement savings that they are gearing up to work longer, set aside more now and live a more modest lifestyle in their so-called golden years, USA Today reports.

While there have been reports of portfolio managers easing back into stocks, one-third of them are still sitting on record amounts of cash, SmartMoney reports.

As the Chinese middle class becomes increasingly familiar with investing, and the nation’s markets open up to international trading, its mutual fund industry is likely to experience incredible growth, Wall Street & Technology reports.

At the hearing on target-date funds that the Department of Labor and the Securities and Exchange Commission is holding tomorrow, the focus is likely to be on better disclosure of holdings.

In a survey of hedge fund executives attending the Global Alternative Investment Management conference in Monaco this week, 65% said they feared that the economic crisis will drag on, Reuters reports.Another 18% said things could even get worse. Only 17% said they thought it was over.“Bailouts [of banks] have worked somewhat, but problems have been transferred to governments,” said Peter Rigg, an executive with HSBC Private Bank who is one of the pessimists surveyed.Fifty-nine percent said they think Europe is suffering the worst, while only 35.5% said conditions are the most precarious in the U.S.“The worst problems are in western economies that have relied on leverage to grow. Economic power is going East,” said Jaime Castan of RMF Investment Management.But not everyone thinks that Asia is insulated, including Marc Lasry of Avenue Capital, who commented: “There’s a huge fiction out there that Asia is going to be fine, but it needs a strong U.S. and Europe to grow.”Asked how the crisis could compromise hedge fund strategies, executives said they were most concerned about liquidity, the lack of alpha and risk management. That said, the investment style that most, 28%, are optimistic about are distressed/event driven, followed by global macro (24%), managed futures (17%) and general arbitrage (10%).