Special Program Root Tag

The coming year is shaping up to be a fresh start for alternative mutual fund shop Pyxis Capital.

Jackson National Life Insurance Company, a purveyor of variable annuities, is looking to offer its advisors and their retail clients access to alternative investments.

Russell Investments has introduced a series of indexes designed to allow fund managers to control volatility in their portfolios.

A new investment management shop has opened in Palm Beach, Fla., dubbed Crest Investment Partners LLC.

Nasdaq OMX and risk analytics developer Axioma have launched a family of indexes that will give investors exposure to commodity spot prices, through the use of stocks.

Wasatch Funds has launched what it touts as “one of the few no-load open-end mutual funds focused exclusively on frontier and smaller emerging market countries,” including Africa and Southeast Asia.

State Street Corporation has appointed Dick Taggart to the post of head of Middle Office Outsourcing Operations across North America for the company’s investment manager services business.

Three big-name mutual fund shops, including Fidelity Management & Research Company, State Street Corporation and Federated Investors, are warning the Securities & Exchange Commission that eliminating the fixed $1 price of fund shares will scare away many investors who want some minimum level of value stability in their assets.

Westwood Holdings Group, Inc. has rolled out the Westwood Short Duration High Yield Fund, which will bet on non-investment grade debt with expected maturities of three years or less.

Three big-name mutual fund shops, including Fidelity Management & Research Company, State Street Corporation and Federated Investors, have a few choice words for the Securities & Exchange Commission about more money- market regulations.

A co-founder of BlackRock said Friday that money market mutual funds would survive, if their asset values would allowed to float from their a stable $1 net asset value per share.

Many investors put off making final Individual Retirement Account contributions until the last minute. Now, Fidelity Investments has an app for that.

Wells Fargo Funds Management, LLC, the investment advisor to Wells Fargo Advantage Funds, has rolled out a fund that will invest in a wide range of alternative investments.

Mutual of Omaha has named Seth Friedman to serve as 401(k) national sales director. He takes over for Michael Ziccardi, who left the firm in December to join Rekon Intelligence, which works with advisors to help them build out their businesses.

The chief economist of The Dreyfus Corporation said Wednesday that world growth will slow down again in 2012, based on International Monetary Fund calculation methods.

Larry Fink, chief executive of BlackRock, wants the asset management industry and government to take the lead in propping up investors' morale in a flagging market.

Change is inevitable and, for the most part, good.

The coming year is shaping up to be a fresh start for alternative mutual fund shop Pyxis Capital.

To Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary L. Schapiro's mind, the current state of the money market fund business is "living on borrowed time."

With ears to the ground in more than 30 countries, Franklin Templeton's fund managers are ready to buck plenty of fixed income investing trends in 2012. Most notably, they plan to embrace active management of their funds, as well as global volatility.