Special Program Root Tag

WASHINGTON — Nearly three years since the financial crisis began, lawmakers appear consumed again with a very precrisis topic: Is overregulation driving financial institutions overseas?

Fifty-nine percent of Americans are not confident the U.S. economy will rebound within the next year, a survey of 1,011 adults by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards found.

AARP launched a new television ad campaign on Thursday urging Congress not to cut critical Medicare and Social Security benefits.

After trading accusations in an arbitration dispute, Bank of America Merrill Lynch has been ordered to pay one of its former financial advisers $1.55 million in compensatory damages and expunge his Form U5.

Registered Fund Services and UMB Fund Services have jointly developed a turnkey registered hedge fund program.

Moody’s has launched a mobile-optimized version of Moodys.com that allows market participants to see Moody’s credit ratings and research on smartphones and other mobile devices.

While recent legislation has sparked debate about suitability versus fiduciary standards, a majority of investors do not understand the difference between the two, a survey by J.D. Power and Associates found.

John Hancock Retirement Plan Services has introduced a second generation of its PRIME Elements iPad application for retirement plan advisers and consultants.

Eaton Vance Management has launched the Eaton Vance Municipal Opportunities Fund, a fund that employs an opportunistic approach to investing in municipal obligations, with the aim of maximizing after-tax total return.

Advisers and millionaires are not on the same page, Fidelity Investments said, citing its comparison of the findings of its Fidelity Millionaire Outlook, based on a survey of 1,000 millionaire households, and the Fidelity Broker and Advisor Sentiment Index, the result of a survey of 1,046 financial professionals.

Two years after proposing rules to avert misuse of client assets on the scale of the Madoff ponzi scheme, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed amendments that would strengthen oversight of broker-dealer audits.

Fifty-four percent of adults age 65 or older are confident in their retirement preparedness, according to Charles Schwab’s latest quarterly retirement pulse survey. But only 26% of those between the ages of 18 and 34 share those feelings.

Direxion has launched five new daily leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds, focused on sectors that have attracted large assets and have high trading volume.

Enrollment in high-deductible health insurance plans that can be linked to health savings plans rose 14% in 2010, according to the trade association America’s Health Insurance Plans. And since 2008, enrollment has in such plans spiked by 87%.

IndexIQ has launched the IQ US Real Estate Small Cap ETF (ticker: ROOF), which it says is the first ETF focused on small-cap U.S. real estate.

The fund will be sub-advised by four global advisory firms.

Positive yet cautious hiring intentions are expected to persist throughout the summer, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey. The Net Employment Outlook for the third quarter is +8%, up from +6% in the third quarter of 2010.

A survey of 1,009 adults by Edward Jones on their retirement savings found good news and bad news. While 15% said their portfolios have recovered from the economic downturn, up from 12% in April 2010, 25% are not saving for retirement, up from 16% a year ago.

John Hancock Mutual Funds has launched three new fundamental equity funds, the John Hancock Fundamental Large Cap Core Fund, John Hancock Fundamental Large Cap Value Fund and John Hancock Fundamental All Cap Core Fund.

The Supreme Court has ruled 5-4 that Janus Capital Group is not liable for false statements in a prospectus for the Janus Investment Fund made at the time of the 2003 market-timing scandal.