Money Management Executive Latest News

The original exchange-traded funds, based on broad-based indexes such as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100, gave investors wide exposure to a multitude of stocks. But as the market has become more crowded, investment advisory firms anxious to jump on the bandwagon have been offering narrower and narrower slices of the market. The newest to come on the scene is single-country ETFs—a bad idea, according to Gary Gordon, a certified financial planner and president of Pacific Park International. Many of these are focused on emerging-markets, perhaps the riskiest of all.

As the markets throughout southeast Asia continue to deliver strong performance—stunning returns averaging 31% a year over the past five years—they are creating more affluent investors and appealing to investment managers around the world, The Financial Times reports. For fund companies that have already extended operations in China and Japan, the region is fertile hunting ground, said Shiv Taneja, the Asia head of Cerulli Associates.

Calling 12b-1 fees a wolf in sheep’s clothing, St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist David Nicklaus doubts that the Securities and Exchange Commission will make good on its recent promise to curtail, possibly even eliminate, 12b-1 fees.

Charles Schwab reported that its first-quarter profit rose 12% to $273 million, or 22 cents a share, its eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit gains, the Associated Press reports. The earnings matched the expectations of analysis surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Husbands and wives have vastly different expectations for their retirement years, Fidelity Investments found though a survey of 500 couples born between 1937 and 1964. While they tend to agree on which investments to own, they plan to retire at different ages, have different views about what will be their primary source of income, how long they will remain in the workforce and what kind of lifestyle they will lead.

Two China equity funds raised $2.33 billion on Monday alone, as China’s market continues to soar and the frenzy to invest reached such a furor that the phone systems at a number of banks crashed, Reuters reports. Since the beginning of the year, the benchmark Shanghai index is up three-fold.

The hedge funds that reported returns to Morningstar rose an average of 2.1% in the first quarter, outperforming major indexes, including the S&P 500 and the MSCI World Index.

Investors are increasingly bringing dramatically worded lawsuits against 401(k) sponsors and fiduciaries for what they allege are shady fee practices, Mondaq reports. The inspiration for the lawsuits has come primarily by investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Labor and Congress into hidden or excessive fees.

Fidelity Investments’ recent decision to merge two highly specialized single-country funds into regional funds may signal a growing disinterest in niche funds, Dow Jones reports. And fund companies might also be looking to trim operational costs through economies of scale.

The NASD issued an investor alert on Monday, warning investors about various types of global marketplace risks. Called “Market Risk: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You,” the alert recommends ways investors can avoid risks. For instance, investors can diversify holdings throughout several regions and hold funds or securities both in the short- and long-term.