Money Management Executive Latest News

For employers with 401(k) plans, auto enrollment is growing, and target-date funds are an increasingly popular default option. But concern is building over what happens when the two trends meet.

The Securities and Exchange Commission late Wednesday said it plans to expand its circuit-breaker program to include all stocks in the Russell 1000 Index and some exchange-traded funds.

The Investment Company Institute reported mutual fund flows for May on Tuesday, showing that investors pulled a noteable $527 billion from funds. This left a net total of $10.701 trillion in asset under management for the industry. By comparison, mutual funds took in $45.51 billion in April.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has updated its standards for the reporting of certain financial instruments and external investment pools by government entities.

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators would spend months, if not years, implementing the sweeping changes to the municipal market that were outlined in the financial regulatory reform legislation finalized by House and Senate negotiators late last week.

The nadir of the economic downturn ravaged many American families’ college savings accounts, sending balances down almost 50%, according to Deborah Fox, founder of Fox College Funding. It frustrated investors, but it also prompted some to become more educated about the fees associated with 529 plans.

Putnam Investments has launched an enhanced website for sponsors of 401(k) plans and other defined-contribution retirement programs.

NEW YORK-After getting burned by the financial crisis in 2008, many investors have decided to sit on the sidelines instead of jumping back into equities. But Putnam Investments said at its mid-year equity markets briefing Tuesday at the St. Regis Hotel it sees the uncertainty in the financial markets as an opportunity.

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that an inventor’s request for a protection of a method of hedging weather-related risk in energy prices cannot be granted.

The reform bill that appears headed to enactment is designed to address problems that produced the 2008 financial crisis. A major premise behind the legislation seems to be that the crisis resulted in large part from regulators’ lack of adequate tools. Thus the bill provides the Securities and Exchange Commission, the primary regulator of mutual funds, and the Federal Reserve Board with even greater authority than they now possess. It also creates entirely new regulatory bodies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Financial Stability Oversight Council.