Portfolio

Infrastructure funds may have been building interest ever since President Barack Obama announced his commitment to rebuilding America's infrastructure, but the managers of the First American Global Infrastructure fund have been laying the groundwork for years.

Defined contribution plans have been hammered by dropping equity markets, and this chain of losses has caused a ripple effect throughout the fund management industry.

The Investment Company Institute is pushing for improvements to municipal disclosure, which it generally considers limited, non-standardized and stale.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has begun distributing $321 million to the two million Alliance Capital investors who were harmed by market timing. This first installment is a total of $46 million, distributed to 300,000 investors.

John Hancock Retirement Plan Services has expanded its sales team by 18, hiring eight regional vice presidents and 10 professionals to man its new internal sales desk. This is a 15% increase in John Hancock’s team supporting advisers selling 401(k)s.

RiverSource Investments, American Century Investments and OppenheimerFunds have received "F" grades from a Morningstar analyst for failing to explain recent changes to shareholders and adding to the paranoia of already shaken investors.

Reports that U.S. Sens. Carl Levin's and Charles Grassley's new bill on hedge fund regulation will force funds to publicize the names of clients are untrue, the senators said.

Fidelity on Tuesday began the second phase of job layoffs which started last year. In this phase, 1,700 people will lose their jobs.

Total money market mutual fund assets rose by $2.38 billion in the week ended Feb. 4, for a total of $3.906 trillion, the Investment Company Institute reported.

With the average target-date fund down 17% in 2008, investors might think twice about what has been one of the best-selling fund categories of the past few years, MarketWatch reports.