Portfolio

The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to propose as early as the end of the month rules that would enhance municipal disclosure, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said in an interview.

Let us hope that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is correct in the words he spoke at Ground Zero last Thursday, the seventh anniversary of the tragic terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. The date 9/11, Bloomberg said, "lives forever in our hearts and our history, a tragedy that unites us in a common memory and a common story, the day that began like any other and ended as none ever has."

Financial services, insurance, and real estate businessesí hiring plans for the fourth quarter are the weakest they have been in 16 years, a survey by Manpower found.

Legg Mason Taps Odenath To Head Up the Americas

Target-date funds, also known as lifecycle funds, are rapidly rising in 401(k) plans as the favorite qualified default investment alternative because they're much more appropriate than the traditional money market fund for hands-off investors.

Americans have changing needs for retirement products as they grow older, and mutual fund companies that recognize and respect the differences between the age groups can be much more effective.

Market unrest, the credit crisis and an updated FAS 157 are prompting mutual fund companies to be more meticulous about fair value pricing, Deloitte reported Monday in its “2008 Fair Value Pricing Survey,” its seventh annual such report.

With Lehman Brothers filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, investors are fearful their holdings could be decimated, but regulators have been stepping in to reassure them that their mutual fund and brokerage accounts are safe, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Securities and Exchange Commission said that some of its staff were working within Lehman’s offices to ensure customer accounts are protected.

John Thain, chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch, said the reaction of his firm’s “thundering herd” of more than 16,000 financial advisers to the Bank of America sale has been almost 100% positive.

Fidelity Investments reached agreements with New York and Massachusetts officials to buy back at par $300 million of auction-rate securities from its customers by the end of the year, becoming the first retail brokerage firm to settle alleged fraudulent sales practices in the ARS market.