Special Program Root Tag

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has hit Raymond James & Associates and Raymond James Financial Services Inc. with an order to pay $1.69 million in restitution to more than 15,500 customers who were charged unfair commissions.

A significant number of advisers who serve 401(k) plans will ramp up their retirement income planning practices over the next few years, according to a new report from Principal Financial, called the “2011 Best Practices in Retirement Income Planning Study.”

Scout Investments has launched the Scout Unconstrained Bond Fund, which will invest across the entire fixed income universe—including investment grade, high-yield, governments, agencies, mortgage-backed, asset-backed and foreign markets.

State Street Global Advisors has launched three new exchange-traded funds, the SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF, SPDR S&P Health Care Services and SPDR A&P Software & Services funds.

Vanguard is lowering the fees on six funds by adding low-cost Admiral Shares to them. Vanguard’s Admiral Shares program requires a minimum account balance of $10,000.

MassMutual Retirement Services’ 2011 campaign to prompt 401(k) participants to save more has succeeded in boosting deferral rates by 4.34%. It also was aimed at getting those who were not saving into the game, and helping those with portfolios to revisit their allocations.

ConvergEx Group has launched a new division dedicated to the formation, performance and management of alternative mutual funds.

New York Life Retirement Plan Services has reorganized into four industry-focused service teams serving: Taft-Hartley, technology, finance and professional services, and manufacturing, materials and retail. Each of these teams will have its own relationship managers, communications consultants, investment specialists and ERISA consultants.

Long-term mutual funds had inflows of $386 million for the week ended Sept. 21, the Investment Company Institute said.

Wall Street firms shouldn't think about complying with the Internal Revenue Service's new rules requiring them to calculate the cost of investors' accounts only as a burdensome operational cost.

The nation’s stock exchanges and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority are filing proposals that will trigger halts in trading, marketwide, more quickly, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

The State Street Investor Confidence Index increased slightly, from 88.1 to 89.9 in September, and The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which had declined sharply in August, remained essentially unchanged during the month at 45.2 ( 1985 = 100), up a notch from the August's 45.2 reading.

Positive results from its “Who Knew” advertising campaign have prompted John Hancock Mutual Funds to extend the campaign through the end of the year—with ads on TV, online and in print, including in sister publication Financial Planning.

Eighty-four percent of 401(k) sponsors surveyed by Mercer and the U.S. SIF Foundation (formerly known as the Social Investment Forum Foundation) believe that sustainable and socially responsible investing (SRI) funds will either hold steady or grow in the next five years.

Northern Trust has launched a new family of exchange-traded funds called FlexShares. The four funds, which are trading on the New York Stock Exchange, are based on indexes created and maintained by Morningstar and Markit.

Investors who relied on professional help in the form of target-date funds, managed accounts and advice earned nearly three percentage points more than those that did not, according to an analysis of eight large defined contribution plans between 2006 and 2010 by Aon Hewitt and Financial Engines. The plans covered 400,000 participants with $25 billion in assets.

Russell Investments has added four additional investment discipline indexes to its series, all of which concentrate on small-cap securities.

As Bank of America Merrill Lynch continues to streamline its business, it has created a new global wealth and retirement solutions organization, said Andrew Sieg, who heads the new unit, in an internal memo to employees on Friday.

The term “emerging markets” was first coined nearly 30 years ago and has become outdated, as the differences between developed and emerging markets have lessened, according to a white paper from Standish Mellon Asset Management Co., the fixed income division of BNY Mellon Asset Management.

Americans are divided on their outlook for the economy, a Harris poll of 2,464 adults earlier this month found. Twenty-one percent expect the economy will improve, 45% think it will stay the same, and 34% fear it will get worse.