Special Program Root Tag

The Consumer Reports Sentiment Index remained weak in October, dropping minimally to 47.6 from 48.8 the month before—but showed some glimmers of hope for the economy.

The Hartford is taking part in the upcoming National Save for Retirement Week of Oct. 16 with the “It’s In Your Power Campaign,” based on superheroes. The campaign, aimed at 1.4 million participations in 32,500 plans, shows two superheroes flying around on scooters, enjoying leisure time with friends and family and generally just enjoying being retired.

Hedge funds took in $6.1 billion in net new flows in August, marking the seventh month of inflows since January, according to BarclayHedge and TrimTabs Investment Research. For the first eight months of the year, hedge funds have seen $51 billion in inflows.

In the wake of economic and stock market volatility, many 401(k) investors are questioning the wisdom of 401(k), 403(b) and 457 plans, a survey by Allianz Life Insurance Company finds.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has unveiled a new set of features for its 401(k) and employee financial benefit programs including new mobile access to retirement account information.

Automatic enrollment greatly increases participation in 401(k) plans for all racial and ethnic groups, with particular success for Blacks and Hispanics, even among low earners, Vanguard research shows.

As head of global exchange-traded fund services at BNY Mellon, Joe Keenan has a front-row seat on developments in the exchange-traded fund industry. As such, Keenan fully expects ETFs to continue their incredible success story. Money Management Executive Editor Lee Barney recently spoke with Keenan on the drivers of ETF growth.

"It's all about the customer experience."

Back when yours truly was in business school, we made five-year projections of detailed financial statements almost every night, for cases we were preparing.

Used to be you had little idea that that 100,000 shares of Exxon-Mobil you bought for your global growth fund put you over the top for your firm-wide exposure to the fate of a single issuer.

In July, forward-thinking fund managers were trying to figure out what might happen to their holdings if-heaven forbid-the unimaginable might occur.

State Street has acquired Complementa Investment-Controlling AG, a Swiss supplier of investment performance measurement and analytics services.

Voting Overseas: Making the Process a Lot Easier

State Street on Friday confirmed that it has reimbursed a United Kingdom pension fund for costs related to transitioning from one fund manager to another.

ProShares has launched the ProShares Ultra DJ-UBS Natural Gas and ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Natural Gas exchange-traded funds. The two funds are tied to the Dow Jones-UBS Natural Gas Subindex.

BlackRock has launched three mutual funds that invest in alternative investments, the BlackRock Commodity Strategies, BlackRock Emerging Markets Long/Short and BlackRock Global Long/Short Credit funds.

NYSE Euronext said activity on its U.S. stock exchanges fell 19.8% in September from August.

While the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 14.3% in the third quarter, many mutual fund categories performed worse, according to Lipper.

The Investment Company Institute has named Gregory Johnson, president and chief executive officer of Franklin Resources as chairman for a one-year term. As chairman, Johnson will oversee ICI’s board of governors, which sets policies and oversees the institute.

BOSTON—An overly disillusioned Generation Y, the exploding middle class in emerging market nations and the bravery and the foresight to embrace new ways to reach investors will provide opportunities to the asset management industry in the years ahead, said Penny Alexander, senior vice president of Franklin Templeton Investments.