Portfolio

Wholesale changes are in store for both pension and 401(k) plans, according to a survey of 140 financial executives by Prudential Financial. Nearly half of the execs at companies with pension plans said their firms were considering freezing or terminating their pension plans in the next two years. Seventeen percent have already closed their DB plan to new entrants, and 27% said they are likely to do so in the next two years.

When the Roman Empire was first expanding, regulators noticed an annoying problem: Due to increasing traffic, chariots were leaving grooves in the stone roads, but the gauge - the distance between the wheels - varied according to region. Different sized chariots didn't fit in the grooves. Julius Caesar had a solution: international standardization.

Even before the global economic crisis, financial firms faced unprecedented pressure to find new ways to leverage technology to streamline operations, reduce risk and improve cash flow management. But today more than ever, firms are turning to technology to compete more effectively in the markets.

For the past year, investors have been nervously avoiding stocks and pumping billions of dollars into bonds and bond mutual funds, but a new study indicates that a large percentage of investors may have a limited understanding of how bonds work.

Fidelity Investments opened Fidelity Clearing Canada in Toronto Thursday, revealing plans to expand its base of broker/dealers. The business will provide clearing, custody and back-office services to both Canadian-based brokerage firms and the Canadian arms of brokerage firms based in the United States, that already clear through National Financial, Fidelity’s U.S.-based clearing branch.

During the second and third quarters, American households should recover as much as $6 trillion of the $14 trillion in wealth that they lost since the onset of the financial downturn last year, Barclays Capital analysts said. Even so, consumers probably won’t be ready to start spending freely again any time soon, Barclays said.

Securities and Exchange Commissioner Troy Paredes told the Investment Company Institute’s Capital Markets Conference Thursday that as long as mutual fund fees are negotiated in “good faith” between an investment manager and a fund board, the Supreme Court or any other court should not interfere in the inner workings of mutual funds, MarketWatch reports.

Reserve Funds paid back an additional $1 billion of the once $63 billion Primary Fund to shareholders, leaving a remaining balance of $4.5 billion. The asset manager is holding $3.5 billion of that in a special reserve for legal and accounting fees.

Nearly half of U.S. companies are now automatically enrolling workers into 401(k) plans to encourage them to save for retirement, and an additional 33% are considering it, according to a survey by Watson Wyatt.

Fidelity has adjusted the holdings in its Freedom Fund lifecycle line as well as other asset allocation portfolios to include more international stocks, commodities and TIPS. International exposure throughout all of the Freedom Funds will rise from an average of 20% to 30%, with exposure to U.S. stocks falling commensurately.