Portfolio

Bill Miller, manager of the Legg Mason Value Trust, may have made a poor gamble last summer, when he expanded his holdings of Freddie Mac, 14.6 million shares of which he first bought in the fourth quarter of last year, by an additional 30 million shares, The Baltimore Sun reports.

Julian Pick, co-manager of two Janus Group international mutual funds, is leaving at the end of the month, Rocky Mountain News reports.

The boomerang effect of the financial crisis and eye-popping oil prices are proving more difficult than even the most skilled mutual fund managers can handle, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Whereas financial advisers have long been known for avoiding index funds, and their newer, exchange-traded fund brethren, for fear of not appearing to warrant their fees for providing active advice, that is changing, The Wall Street Journal. Advisers are beginning to see the merits of ETFs’ low fees, tax efficiencies and narrow slices of the market—and instead of leaving it to mutual fund portfolio managers to create a basket of diversified funds, many advisers are now driving asset allocation themselves by creating a basket of ETFs.

The Pension Protection Act is proving to help people better prepare for retirement by easing employers’ liabilities for automatically enrolling workers in retirement savings plans. But millions of middle- or lower-income Americans are still underserved, particularly if they work for small employers that don’t offer a 401(k) plan, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Social Investment Forum Recruits Two PR Execs

Taking dead-aim at Middle America, Allstate Corp. has added guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits to its target funds.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has widened its ongoing auction rate securities (ARS) probe with a sweep letter aimed primarily at sellers, rather than lead managers, of the illiquid instruments.

New York A.G. Probing Fidelity, Goldman Links

MINNEAPOLIS - Sen. John McCain is the better choice for the financial services industry not for what he would do as president, but rather for what he would refrain from doing, GOP lawmakers said here this week during the Republican National Convention.