Portfolio

A National Bureau of Economic Research study has concluded that while Build America Bonds have succeeded in their mission to lower financing costs for state and local governments, traditional tax-exempt bonds still offer more enticing after-tax yields to individual investors.

According to a survey by Cogent, among the top five providers of exchange-traded funds, Vanguard is the only one to make gains in 2010, climbing 10 percentage points to become a “true iShares challenger.”

Financial advisers rate Vanguard the No. 1 provider of exchange-traded funds, giving the company high marks on nine out of 10 metrics, Cogent Research found, in its 2010 Adviser Brandscape survey of 1,560 advisers. Vanguard rated a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 33%, compared to market share leader Barclays iShares’ 20%. NPS is a standardized loyalty metric developed by Bain & Co. and deployed across many industries, according to Cogent.

While 2010 fixed-annuity sales can’t hold a candle to freakishly high sales a year ago, widening spreads are making it a pretty good year.

Mortgage-backed securities, especially those paying higher rates of interest than comparable Treasuries, are gaining an increased amount of attention from investors who have been sitting on cash.

Latest stories warn investors against absolute-return funds, hidden 401(k) fees, hardship withdrawals.

Government’s effort to boost retirement savings could overburden small employers.

A bill before Congress seeking to increase retirement savings among workers will unnecessarily overburden small employers, according to a new report from Aite Group.

Wall Street wirehouse bulge-bracket firms continue to top the list of sponsors of separately managed accounts for the second quarter of this year, according to a research report just issued by the Money Management Institute and Dover Financial Research.

Municipal bond mutual funds reported another healthy slug of new money last week as demand for high-quality fixed income continued to drive investment flows. Muni funds that report their figures weekly posted a net inflow of $728.4 million during the week ended Aug. 25, according to Lipper FMI.