Morningstar

Funds that buy debt backing sustainability matters grew 12% from the end of 2019 globally, reaching a record $209.5 billion of assets, data show.

JPST, which tracks investment-grade securities maturing in a year or less, has attracted over $3.7 billion in flows this year.

Some of the biggest laggards have managed short-term gains of more than 40%.

Fidelity's letter to the Labor Department says the proposal isn't “well grounded or supported by much of the emerging data.”

More than half of these funds have fees higher than 75 basis points.

Fees for the category's best performing mutual funds and ETFs are much like the price of bullion: expensive.

If clients “looked just three months ago, these numbers would be glaringly different,” an expert says.

The firm’s growth plans come as the industry experiences a new wave of consolidation among custodians and fintechs.

The 20 top-performers have generated gains well over 50% in the first seven months of the year.

Despite besting the broader market over the long-term, those at the top have underperformed in the first half of 2020.

The current proposal “would lead to worse outcomes for plan participants as plan sponsors shied away from assessing ESG risks in selecting investments,” the research firm says.

“No one could have envisioned what this virus was going to do to the commercial real estate space,” an expert says.

Investors may be put off by the costs associated with these funds, which had an average expense ratio of more than triple their peers.

The leaders raked in a combined $949 billion over the past decade.

Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia said retirement plans aren’t for “furthering social goals or policy objectives that are not in the financial interest of the plan.”

Here's how the largest groups have fared during unprecedented market activity.

The funds had posted gains over the past decade, but have suffered losses amid this year's coronavirus-driven volatility.

Still, clients continue to invest their assets into the industry’s cheapest funds and are saving billions as a result.

"It's now June and if you’ve been on a deserted island for the last five months you couldn’t have fathomed the movements we’ve seen," an expert says.

The decade’s top performers also outpaced broader markets over the short term.