Portfolio

Technology exchange-traded funds were some of the biggest sellers during the dot-com mania of 10 years ago, even as they loaded up on Internet companies without profits.

Exchange-traded funds continued to take in money in August, but inflows slowed to $5.5 billion, down from $13.5 billion the month before.

Forward Management has launched the Forward Tactical Growth Fund, a mutual fund that will try to take advantage of market inefficiencies all the while minimizing downside volatility, by taking long, short of neutral market positions on individual securities, sectors or entire markets. Broadmark Asset Management is sub-advisor to the fund, which is a 40 Act version of a similar separately managed account the two firms already offer.

Wirehouses are projected to lose $188 billion in client assets this year due to adviser migration, according to a new report from Cerulli Associates. And those losses are expected to continue over the longer term as well.

With the collapse of Lehman Brothers a year in the past and the economy on the road to recovery, many participants in the financial services industry are questioning whether the industry still needs to undergo substantial regulatory change, and what changes, if any, could be beneficial at this point.

President Obama outlined a series of initiatives the federal government would take to help people boost their retirement savings, including allowing them to direct tax refunds, pay raises and unused vacation pay to their nest eggs.

Advisers Favor Tactical Allocation Over Traditional Equity Exposure

In the eight months since their launch in January, Putnam Investments' new family of absolute-return mutual funds has attracted more than $400 million in new investments and, according to the firm, is on track to top $1 billion by the end of the year.

We just published the results from kasina's 2009 Sales Compensation study. Compiling the data was a lengthy, arduous and enlightening process. As you would expect, data reveal that quantum changes have taken hold since our last Sales Comp study in 2007. More interesting to me than the data itself, though, is that only a minority of firms are making special and determined efforts to take care of their top salespeople.

Mutual fund advocates are rallying together in preparation for a key Supreme Court battle this fall that could drastically change the way fund companies structure their fees.