Special Program Root Tag

Guggenheim Partners and Rydex/SGI announced Wednesday that Guggenheim will acquire Rydex in the first quarter of 2012 and combine its asset management capabilities under the name Guggenheim Investments. Once the deal is closed, Guggenheim Investments will have $119 billion of assets under management. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Long-Term funds netted $2.13 billion in the week ended Sept. 14, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Fidelity Investments announced Wednesday it has received commitments for an additional $17 billion in 401(k) assets under management from 269 plans representing 315,000 participants. More than $15 billion of those assets are due to new sales, with the remaining $2 billion the result of mergers and acquisitions by existing clients.

Charles Schwab is augmenting the fund asset, trading and sales information it provides to more than 600 mutual fund clients through a partnership with Access Data, a Broadridge company. The additional information will be available on Schwab’s Mutual Fund OneSource and Mutual Fund Marketplace platforms.

Janus Capital Group has unveiled a new online retirement income distribution tool aimed at helping financial advisers keep their clients’ retirement income evenly flowing for more than 30 years.

A new report by the Investment Company Institute shows that over the past four months, a staggering $75 billion has been withdrawn from equity mutual funds.

Mutual funds’ fair value procedures are holding up amid the unprecedented market volatility that has resulted from economic uncertainty, Middle East unrest and environmental disasters, Deloitte found in its Ninth Annual Fair Value Pricing Survey. This year’s survey queried executives at 79 asset management firms around the world with more than 3,300 fund offerings with $2.6 trillion in assets under management.

Fears over a possible economic slowdown, sovereign debt and not enough capitalization at U.S. financial institutions sent the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) Risk Index up 2.5 points to 110.5 in the second quarter. This is very close to the previous high reached in the third quarter of 2010.

TORONTO -- The movement of credit-default and other forms of complex financial swaps into electronically managed and centrally cleared markets may be increasing rather than lowering risk, Michael Bodson, chief operating officer of Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation said Tuesday at SIBOS 2011 here.

Developing economies of the world are still showing robust growth, but that may not be enough to lift the sagging economies of the developed world, which still account for 60% of combined global economic output, warns Lin Yifu, a World Bank senior vice president and chief economist.

Investment advisor advocates are breathing easier after the Department of Labor announced Monday that it has pulled its current proposal on the definition of a fiduciary off the table. The agency will take up the issue in early 2012 and repropose a fiduciary definition after more industry input.

PNC has launched the PNC Wealth Insight tool to allow high-net-worth clients see an aggregated, enhanced view of their assets.

A group of regulators and lobbyists speaking at an industry conference this weekend laid out a possible timetable for the implementation of new Dodd-Frank-related regulations affecting financial planners.

GuidedChoice has created a retirement plan “reality check” for participants to see how well prepared they are for retirement and how much income their savings will produce. The program also guides them to save more and offers access to professional advice.

Invesco has launched the PlanForward Consulting Series, aimed at helping 401(k) advisers and consultants “build a compelling value proposition and enhance their brand recognition.”

News of a possible double-dip recession and extreme stock market volatility prompted 40% of Americans to reduce their spending in the past 60 days, according to the September Bankrate Financial Security Index.

The Investment Company Institute hosted the 2011 Tax and Accounting Conference September 11–14 at the JW Marriott Desert Springs in Palm Desert, California. Here are a few of the many people who made it the place the discuss tax, accounting, and regulatory developments. See the photo gallery here.

Fidelity Investments has added five funds to its Spartan equity index lineup: the Spartan Emerging Markets Index, Spartan Global ex-U.S. Index, Spartan Real Estate, Spartan Mid-Cap and Spartan Small-Cap funds. This brings the total number of funds in this family to 13.

Instinet said it handled 43% more volume in the trading of stocks in the United States in August, compared to July.

When the herd mentality is dominating markets, fund managers beware. That is not the time to actively manage your holdings.