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The assets held in mutual funds fell $219.2 billion in July -- before the announcement that Standard & Poor’s had cut its rating of U.S. debt for the first time ever.

Invictus Consulting Group has created a bank stress test service for hedge funds that rates the valuation of bank stocks in relation to their peers. It also stress tests banks’ Tier 1 capital reserves two years out. By comparison, banks’ stress tests are handled in house, Invictus noted.

If the U.S. Congress had failed to lift the debt ceiling by its Aug. 2 deadline, senior Fed officials were prepared to take necessary actions to stabilize the market, if warranted.

Despite all the doomsday prognostications, 2011 will likely have fewer muni fund defaults than either 2009 or 2010. So why are advisors and investors still so gun-shy?

A trio of finance professors are blasting the big three rating agencies, Moody’s in particular, claiming in a new report that they've unearthed evidence that asset classes that provide the agencies with most of their revenue benefit from better credit ratings while classes that provide less revenue receive harsher treatment.

The vast majority of retail advisors now use alternative products or strategies for their clients -- but that number is a bit misleading, a new study finds.

Global custodian Northern Trust on Tuesday said it has made it easier and faster for fund managers and their pension plan otother clients to view and customize risk analytics and performance metrics through its web portal.

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Financial advisors looking for new and more effective ways to interact with their Baby Boomer clients -- or find new ones -- should be inspired by a new Pew Research Center report that found social networking participation among this highly coveted group surged more than 60% in the past year.

J.P. Morgan Asset Management has hired James Gearin as chief operating officer of its retirement plan services business, reporting to the unit’s CEO, David Musto.