Portfolio

Rep-as-advisor managed accounts have been steadily growing in popularity and will continue to do so in the short-term, but Cerulli Associates see growth dampening because of the account’s nondiscretionary nature.

State Street Global Markets’ Investor Confidence Index of 108.0 is up 5.4 points from February’s revised reading of 102.6.

Fidelity’s institutional service organization’s first big initiative is new tools and service upgrades for National Financial broker/dealers to reduce their administrative tasks and help them focus on clients. Fidelity developed the tools after discovering that brokers spend nearly one-third of their time on admin tasks.

In an opinion piece in today’s Wall Street Journal, Charles R. Schwab, chairman of Charles Schwab Corp., spells out the grave danger that the near-zero fed funds rate poses for senior citizens. With their purchasing power effectively eviscerated by 76%, retirees are “financially starving,” Schwab says.

Victory Capital Management, the asset management arm of KeyCorp's KeyBank, says it is positioned to quickly expand the assets it manages in collective investment trusts, or CITs, for defined contribution plans, but the effort will not lack challenges.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Jones v. Harris Associates excessive mutual fund fee case Tuesday, essentially vacating the Chicago federal appeals court’s rejection of the case on the basis that such cases can only be heard when they involve fraud.

With no estate tax, everything could go to the kids.

ING Financial Solutions is launching today a new, simplified variable annuity, called ING Select Opportunities, with much lower fees than its flashier, pre-crash offerings.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Jones v. Harris Associates excessive mutual fund fee case Tuesday, essentially vacating the Chicago federal appeals court’s rejection of the case on the basis that such cases can only be heard when they involve fraud. The Supreme Court has asked the lower court to reconsider the case.

With investors more prone to invest in alternatives in the wake of the financial crisis, they might want to consider commodities, according to an article written by three university professors and the managing director of the CFA institute in the upcoming issue of Journal of Investing.