Practice

Jackson National Life Insurance Company, a purveyor of variable annuities, is looking to offer its advisors and their retail clients access to alternative investments.

For many planners with high-net-worth minimums for their clients, target-date funds don’t make sense for a variety of reasons. But in the right circumstances, they can be helpful tools.

The top concern was over the quality and selection of investment options in traditional plans, with over half of RIAs surveyed naming this as their chief issue.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has voted to issue for public comment a proposed auditing standard on related-party transactions, and to amend standards on significant unusual transactions and auditors of broker-dealers.

An arbitration panel shot down a claimant’s request for up to $2.9 million for allegedly botched investments tied to private placements and Ponzi schemes last week, and instead ordered her to pay almost $136,000 in costs and expert witness fees.

Three big-name mutual fund shops, including Fidelity Management & Research Company, State Street Corporation and Federated Investors, are warning the Securities & Exchange Commission that eliminating the fixed $1 price of fund shares will scare away many investors who want some minimum level of value stability in their assets.

Three big-name mutual fund shops, including Fidelity Management & Research Company, State Street Corporation and Federated Investors, have a few choice words for the Securities & Exchange Commission about more money- market regulations.

Mutual of Omaha has named Seth Friedman to serve as 401(k) national sales director. He takes over for Michael Ziccardi, who left the firm in December to join Rekon Intelligence, which works with advisors to help them build out their businesses.

As banks nationwide struggle to process troubled assets off their books, middle market companies have not been able to get the loans they need to grow. Private money is stepping in to fill that gap – and providing yields that planners are seeking for their HNW clients.

Many investors put off making final IRA contributions until the last minute, and now Fidelity Investments has an app for that.