Portfolio

Closed-end fund assets increased $1.61B during Q2. Equity fund assets decreased by $1.5B to $96.21B, and bond fund assets increased by $3.11B to $153.39B.

The world’s largest asset manager will use software from Hewlett-Packard to speed development of applications for Aladdin, its investment management platform.

Individual investors like what they see in long-term muni bond mutual funds and so have been pouring more money into them in 2012 than they have in years.

Defined contribution plan sponsors need to do a better job communicating key information to participants, according to a survey of plan participants.

BMO Asset Management is changing the investment objectives of several ETFs. The biggest change involves switching two of the ETFs to more recognized indices.

Henry Blodget, former cheerleader for the dot-come bubble, names the big fund managers that got taken to the cleaners with the Facebook IPO.

At four years and counting, the low-yield environment for bond looks likely to continue well beyond 2012 and has caused many investors to sit on the sidelines and miss out on additional income.

For some clients, it might make a lot of sense for planners to hedge large corrections by treating market volatility as an asset class to protect them from excessive downside risk.

The stock fund exit stampede continued last week, but at a slower pace. Investors withdrew $3.56 billion the week ended Aug. 8, down significantly from $5.65 billion the previous week.

Individual investors like what they see in long-term muni bond mutual funds and so have been pouring more money into them in 2012 than they have in years.