Money Management Executive Latest News

Investors Held Steady During Turbulence

Advisers are showing signs of optimism after months of market doldrums, according to a new survey by broker/dealer Securities America of 180 of its top producers.

The investment community is hopeful that with a little tweaking, target-date funds could be the ideal solution for getting apathetic investors into an age-appropriate asset allocation.

With pension plans headed for virtual extinction, the 401(k) will inevitably become the sole qualified retirement savings vehicle in the nation, and as such, the defined contribution model must be vastly improved, speakers at the Investment Company Institute's General Membership Meeting in Washington said.

Those hoping for a return to the good old days of self-regulated, self-correcting markets need to face reality: Those days are over.

Half of the parents that OppenheimerFunds recently surveyed don’t believe that college is as affordable as it once was, and 43% have saved less than $5,000 for their children’s college education, and another 13% have saved nothing at all. Only 20% have save $20,000 or more.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has begun sending investors checks from the $267 million fair funds distribution fund that came out of a 2006 settlement with Bear Stearns over late trading and market timing in mutual funds.

Investors’ general inertia has caused most of them to stick with their 401(k)s. On the one hand, it’s a good thing they aren’t trading in and out of their retirement funds, but their lack of interest is hurting them, Dow Jones reports.

Putnam Investments has launched the Putnam Capital Spectrum Fund and the Putnam Equity Spectrum Fund, two funds that will invest in a full spectrum of underpriced securities of leveraged companies, including stocks, bonds, bank loans and convertible securities.

A line has been drawn in the sand, and anyone with an interest in banking stocks will have to pick a side.