Special Program Root Tag

Retirement plan advisers’ top five concerns include new disclosure rules, market volatility, finding greater flexibility and customization in plans, measuring a given plan’s success and an expected redefinition of fiduciary status. Those are the results from a national listening tour conducted by Transamerica Retirement Services.

Investors’ continuing obsession with purchasing Treasury bonds is a sign of ‘irrational exuberance,’ says the chairman of investment manager T. Rowe Price when 10-year yields are under 2.0%.

The asset management industry's exceptional agility following the financial crisis, most particularly its ability to improve profitability, is masking long-term challenges to growth, according to McKinsey & Co.

The SEC has ordered broker-dealer FTN Financial Securities to pay nearly $2 million for allowing a registered investment advisor, Sentinel Management, to defraud its clients through a reverse repurchase transaction.

The Investment Company Institute on Monday sent a letter signed by 32 leaders of the fund industry, to the co-chairs of the Super Committee, or the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction.

Eight in 10 advisers who sell annuities report that they are having more client discussions about retirement income planning than they did five years ago. And those discussions are becoming more emotional, according to a new report, “The Evolution of the Annuity Industry," released by the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) and Cogent Research.

It’s perhaps the ultimate irony when a financial advisoer files for bankruptcy. But the CFP Board finds it is happening more and more often. Of 103 disciplinary hearings the board held last year, an estimated 25% of planners involved had filed for bankruptcy. In 2011, that number jumped to about a third.

The volatility that has gripped the markets in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis has changed the investment management game forever.

For more than a year, Republicans have been hammering Democrats for what they say are the hefty economic costs of new financial regulations.

Governments are falling, bond yields are zigzagging by whole percentage points and markets around the world are locking up. The eurozone turmoil risks turning into a global crisis.

And you thought the U.S. stocks were out of favor.

"Emerging markets are just a niche asset class" persistently remains as one of the five biggest myths about investing in emerging markets, said John Flint, chief executive officer of HSBC Global Asset Management.

Investment banking and brokerage firm Stephens Inc. has named John Baumgartner managing director and co-head of equity capital markets.

Fund managers are always looking for solid returns and growth in assets under management.

A majority of finance professionals are cautiously optimistic about growth in 2012, a survey by Accounting Principals, a finance and accounting staffing company, found.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index for the U.S. increased sharply in October, by 0.9%, to 117.4 (2004 = 100). This follows a 0.1% increase in September and a 0.3% increase in August.

Jon B. Lovelace of The Capital Group passed away Wednesday at age 84. In 1951, Lovelace joined Capital Group, which his father, Jonathan Bell Lovelace, founded.

Bill Miller will cede his position as chief investment officer of Legg mason in April. Sam Peters will become CIO and take over as portfolio manager of the $7.4 billion Value Trust fund. Peters will also become lead manager on the Value Equity strategy. However, Miller will remain chairman of Legg Mason continue to run its Opportunities trust.

A topic of great concern to RIAs as markets remain volatile is how to manage portfolios for skittish clients, according to a survey by Invesco and Cogent Research. The survey covered 206 RIAs with an average of $488 million in investable assets.

A lot more mass affluent investors know what a CFP is than was the case just a few months ago. That’s what an early study of the CFP Board’s four-year, $40 million advertising and brand awareness campaign shows, the board reported in a media briefing this week.