Portfolio

Charles Schwab is a bit late to the party with its new U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF -- but the company may use its brokerage platform to help even the playing field.

For years, PIMCO’s taxable bond Total Return Fund (PTTRX) has been a top-performer in its class, with five-star ratings from both Morningstar and S&P, five-year annualized trailing returns of 8.9%, and a manager, William Gross, widely respected as among one of the top in industry.

Assets in exchange-traded funds in the U.S. will double to $2 trillion by 2015, according to a new report from BNY Mellon and Strategic Insight. Non-traditional investment strategies, which currently comprise 30% of ETF assets, will drive most of this growth, the two companies said.

ProShares has launched the ProShares Hedge Replication ETF, benchmarked against Merrill Lynch’s hedge fund replication model.

Charles Schwab is a bit late to the party with its new U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF -- but the company may use its brokerage platform to help even the playing field.

ProShares has launched the ProShares Hedge Replication ETF, benchmarked against Merrill Lynch’s hedge fund replication model.

For years, PIMCO’s taxable bond Total Return Fund (PTTRX) has been a top-performer in its class, with five-star ratings from both Morningstar and S&P, five-year annualized trailing returns of 8.9%, and a manager, William Gross, widely respected as among one of the top in industry.

Van Eck Global has launched the Market Vectors CEF Municipal Income ETF (ticker: XMPT), which it says is the first exchange-traded fund to focus on closed-end municipal bond funds.

Fifty-five percent of 401(k) participants say they would not be saving for retirement if it were not for their workplace savings plan, Fidelity Investments found in a survey of 1,000 participants and retirees. Additionally, 19% say they have no retirement savings outside of their 401(k) plan.

Lincoln Trust Company has introduced the Personalized Expense Ratio for the 401(k) plans that it administers. The ratio is designed for participants, plan sponsors and advisers to see the actual cost of their plans without having to perform calculations themselves.