Practice

Critics claim it will hurt securitizations, limit flow of credit

Vice President Joe Biden unveiled the Middle Class Task Force's new report on the middle class Friday, in which he outlined plans to offer automatic Individual Retirement Accounts to most Americans, provided clarification for giving advice to plan participants, and offered a proposal to allow plans to provide guaranteed retirement income products.

As if working for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities wasn’t stigma enough, benefits consulting firm Hooker and Holcombe is using 6% of the money in the bankrupt company’s 401(k) plan to cover the $100,000 cost of winding it down. Across the board, every account in the plan is being deducted by that percent.

If the U.S. mutual fund industry would like a clearer picture of what would happen to sales if fees—particularly up-front, sales load, 12b-1 or 401(k) fees—were disclosed, it need only take a look at the disastrous results in India.

The American Council of Life Insurers is taking issue with a proposal by the White House to tax the “non-earned” income — for advisers, this includes annuity income — of people making $200,000 or more per year at 2.9% to help pay for Medicare.

Advisors spent much of the last two years telling clients not to worry about the day-to-day shifts in the market, that their goals are long-term. But are they applying their own mantra?

The result of not having a uniform fiduciary standard for advisors across the board is the harm that investors will experience

Although women are just as optimistic as men about the stock market, women are much less confident about their investment decisions, according to a survey by MassMutual.

Retirement plans, endowments, foundations and other large investors in North America will turn over $420 billion in assets to new investment advisors, according to the “2010 Consultant Search Forecast” survey of 70 leading investment consulting firms by eVestment Alliance and Casey, Quirk & Associates.

The International Organization of Securities Commissions, of which the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.K. Financial Services Authority are members, starting in September will ask hedge funds to provide high-level, bi-annual snapshots of: their stock and bond holdings, geographic and underlying currency exposure, leverage levels, sales and redemptions, investor classifications, primary marketing channels, recent performance, and operations and technology details, including turnover, clearing mechanisms and risk measures.