Portfolio

Returns on target-date funds continue to disappoint, with the five largest 2010 funds trailing the S&P 500 by 11 percentage points since the market’s March 9 low. They are up an average of 25% since that date, well below the benchmark index’s 36% rise, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Munder Names FitzGerald As Firm's First President

Match or No Match, 401(k) Contributions Are Critical

As the economic slump curbs retirement savings and the government considers imposing curbs on target-date funds, Great-West Retirement Services is trying out what its president is calling "the next generation" of target-date funds.

It won't be easy in the aftermath of a global recession, but with the right mixture of transparency and expertise, wealth managers will be able to regain their status as trusted advisers.

In the wake of Bernie Madoff's monumental, $60 billion Ponzi scheme, regulators are proposing to increase accounting safeguards by requiring mandatory surprise audit inspections of every investment adviser with custody of client assets.

Bill Miller, manager of the Legg Mason Opportunity Trust Fund, is showing that he’s still got game. With the fund returning a stunning 48% in the second quarter, it is the No. 1 performing U.S. stock fund for the period.

To realize better synergies between people in its personal and workplace investing divisions, Fidelity is reshuffling about 1,000 staff members in four locations.

Get ready for subdued economic growth in the years ahead, as fear and frugality will dominate the mindset of U.S. consumers for at least a generation, Pimco’s co-CIO Bill Gross says in his July investment outlook, posted on the firm’s website. He projects annual GDP growth rates in the U.S. of 2% a year, down from the historical 3.5%.“Greed will come again. But for now, the trend is the other say, and it promises to persist for a generation at a minimum,” Gross said.While American consumers have been known to have short memories, the fact is, $15 trillion of wealth has been eliminated since early 2007 and the unemployment rate is near 10%, Gross pointed out.He writes: “Our economy’s lights, if not switched off in a rehash of the 1930s Depression, have certainly been dimmed in a 21st century version likely to be labeled the Great Recession. U.S. and many global consumers gorged themselves on Big Macs of all varieties: burgers to be sure, but also McHouses, McHummers, and McFlatscreens, all financed with excessive amounts of McCredit. What a colossal McStake.”

Standard & Poor's, economy