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For years, PIMCO’s taxable bond Total Return Fund (PTTRX) has been a top-performer in its class, with five-star ratings from both Morningstar and S&P, five-year annualized trailing returns of 8.9%, and a manager, William Gross, widely respected as among one of the top in industry.

Moody’s and S&P are warning they may soon downgrade the United States’ coveted AAA sovereign debt rating if the debt ceiling isn’t raised or if the country misses any debt payments or fails to meet obligations like distributing Social Security checks, but at least one credit rating firm appears to have reached the end of its patience.

Van Eck Global has launched the Market Vectors CEF Municipal Income ETF (ticker: XMPT), which it says is the first exchange-traded fund to focus on closed-end municipal bond funds.

T. Rowe Price has developed a free financial educational book for kids called “Journey to Your Dream Goal” that can be downloaded at the T. Rowe Price Family Center website.

As unemployment numbers remain markedly high, the number of high-net worth individuals in the U.S. continued to increase in 2010, according to Capgemini’s 2011 U.S. Metro Wealth Index.

I have a lot of pet peeves but one of my biggest is how we, as a profession, tend to define other professionals by one number: their assets under management.

Assets in exchange-traded funds in the U.S. will double to $2 trillion by 2015, according to a new report from BNY Mellon and Strategic Insight. Non-traditional investment strategies, which currently comprise 30% of ETF assets, will drive most of this growth, the two companies said.

Fifty-five percent of 401(k) participants say they would not be saving for retirement if it were not for their workplace savings plan, Fidelity Investments found in a survey of 1,000 participants and retirees. Additionally, 19% say they have no retirement savings outside of their 401(k) plan.

When business development professionals come aboard and start bringing new clients into the fold, don’t let them down with processes that fall short.

One year into the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, regulators need to work to ensure the future competitiveness of the U.S. market as the watershed legislation takes shape, industry officials said Wednesday.