Portfolio

Mutual fund and alternative investment advisors alike have been racing to attract wealthy clients with a rash of new hedge funds over the past year.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate last week reviewed two 401(k) reform bills that now include provisions designed to make it easier for investors to get advice about their retirement plans.

Morningstar's plan to rate managed accounts much the way it ranks mutual funds has drawn concern from an industry lobby group.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, American Funds has a lot to be proud of. An innovative 529 plan it launched with the State of Virginia last Friday has caused at least two other investment managers to revamp their own college savings plans, according to industry executives.

The financial collapse of Enron, and reports that the firm's workers lost millions in their retirement plans when the company declared bankruptcy, has spawned a spate of recent legislative measures designed to protect 401(k) investors. But many of the initiatives are facing criticism from industry officials who say that lawmakers should be cautious in reacting to the Enron debacle.

As Franklin Templeton's director of defined contribution services, Dan Reinhold never thought he would find himself working at, of all things, an automobile industry conference.

Retirement plan providers are closely eyeing the new employer-only 401(k) plans as a vehicle that could capture greater rollover assets, open new markets and provide inroads to the high-net-worth crowd.

Open to the back pages of the "Money and Investing" section of the Wall Street Journal and you'll find a series of indexes, including those from the paper's parent company, Dow Jones. Then flip to fund listings provided by Lipper and you'll find a list of funds delineated by category: small-cap, large-cap, value, core, growth.

At the height of the bull market, employee benefits packages were used to recruit new talent, but with massive layoffs occurring across the economy, those packages, including 401(k) benefits, are being trimmed.

It's separately managed account mania. In the past month alone, three different studies examining managed acount products and prognosticating their impact on the fund world were issued by industry consultants.