Special Program Root Tag

Manulife Asset Management has acquired the assets of Optique Capital Management of Milwaukee, Wisc. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the companies did say that Optique has $800 million in mutual fund and separately managed account assets under management.

MIAMI -- There is one "really huge problem on the horizon" for the U.S. economy that could undermine its health, long-term, said Vanguard Group chief executive F. William McNabb III Monday.

John Hancock Funds Monday announced a new advertising campaign to showcase its investment management expertise and trusted brand.

John Hancock Annuities has created its second “Retirement Talk” module, this one focusing on retirement income and the emotions of a couple entering retirement.

Exchange-traded funds are continuing to gain traction among Charles Schwab’s clients.ETF assets held by the firm’s clients climbed 34% in 2010, compared with 28% growth in the ETF industry overall, according to Schwab. The brokerage’s clients hold more than $111 billion in ETF assets.

Asset management firms have made great improvements in the websites they have developed to help financial advisers sell their product over the past year, research by the Insured Retirement Institute and Corporate Insight found.

Letting the net value of assets in a money market fund would "change the shape and form" of such funds -- and could create system risk.

Smaller Asian nations, namely Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, will lead global growth over the next year, asst management, private equity and hedge fund executives said in a survey conducted by RBC Capital Markets.

Bonaire Software Solutions announced Monday that it has signed a record number of new clients for its REVPORT revenue management and fee billing software suite.

TD Ameritrade has agreed to distribute approximately $10 million to customers who continue to hold shares of the Reserve Yield Plus Fund, a mutual fund that famously "broke the buck" on the net value of its assets in September 2008.

Penny only went to work in an investor center in October.

Mutual funds and pension funds looking at new ways to reinvest the cash they hold as collateral when they lend out securities has become a hot issue.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average last Wednesday ran past 12,227. This puts it at about the same level as in February 2007 and again in February 2008. That was sandwiched around a push past 14,000 in October 2007, when optimism was its highest about the impregnability of the housing market and the U.S. economy.

Frank Moore has joined CPI Qualified Plan Consultants as a retirement plan consultant in the Birmingham, Ala., consulting office. Moore will work with plan sponsors and financial advisers on their qualified and non-qualified retirement plan programs.

Marketing to Generation X & Y is by far more of a challenge than reaching Baby Boomers since members of these groups pride themselves on their individualism, shun traditional media in favor of splintered social networking, have become distrustful of financial services companies and investing following the recession, and are conservative investors who are fearful about their retirement prospects and more concerned about their present needs.

MIAMI, Fla. -- After the flat decade that stock-based mutual funds have had and with post-World War II baby boomers starting to retire, "it's all about income now,'' said Matt Witkos, president of Eaton Vance Distributors, at the opening of the National Investment Company Service Association 29th Annual Conference & Expo.

The fund business looks like it’s back.

The 29th Annual National Investment Company Service Association Conference & Expo opens Monday, with NICSA president Theresa Hammacher launching two assessments of the state of the fund industry.

Reflecting a slow return of investors’ risk appetite, long-term U.S. stock and bond funds took in $34 billion in inflows in January, Strategic Insight said.