Portfolio

Circuit Court Permits 401(k) Lawsuit Against Wal-Mart to Be Heard

Armed with a slew of wealth management veterans who chose to jump ship from U.S. Trust after it was acquired by Bank of America, Evercore Wealth Management has nearly doubled its assets under management to $1.4 billion in the past six months, but if that wasn't already impressive, the New York company's top executive expects to nearly quadruple that and reach $5 billion in the next five years.

While it may be too late for the Securities and Exchange Commission to pass any new regulations before the end of the year, financial experts anticipate major financial legislation and regulation to occur sometime in early 2010.

In the "new normal" that follows this recession, exchange-traded funds will be ideally positioned for a new world of lower expenses, lower returns and exposure to a wide variety of asset classes, experts say.

SunGard has created a Cost Basis Reporting Engine for mutual fund and other financial services companies. Compatible with any back-office system, it enables companies to meet the new cost-basis reporting requirements in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act passed on Oct. 10, 2008.

A group of Democratic lawmakers has introduced legislation that would impose a tax on Wall Street securities transactions.

Despite the painful headlines, government bailouts and predictions of a flood of advisors going independent, wirehouses have retained both advisors and high-net-worth assets and will continue to dominate this space, according to a new report by Cerulli Associates.

Managers of 529 college-savings plans have always competed on fees, but the latest round of the bidding war promises to be the most intense.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is working on considerable 12b-1 reform for 2010 that could go beyond mere disclosure or a more appropriate name for the fees, Chairman Mary Schapiro told the Consumer Federation of America’s 21st Annual Financial Services Conference. One recent suggestion for reforming the fees was to rename them “marketing and fund promotion fees.”

Great-West Retirement Services has won New Hampshire’s 457 account, serving 5,800 state employees with more than $170 million in assets.