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"Your goals are your benchmarks."

Fund managers are moving to get independent values on over-the-counter derivatives, rather than relying on their broker-dealers.

Independent registered investment advisers continue to gain on national wirehouses, making it imperative for asset managers to offer distinctive, low-cost funds, speakers said at the FundForum USA 2010 conference in Boston.

First investment banks developed tools to act like hedge funds. Now their risk strategies are spreading to traditional money management.

Investors poured over $26.8 billion into long-term mutual funds in October, nearly twice the assets added in September, Morningstar reported on Wednesday.

Surprisingly, most Americans showed understanding of diversification, asset allocation and dollar-cost averaging, while flunking basic questions about other financial concepts in a survey for Northwestern Mutual. This discrepancy is consistent with findings in a 2006 study.

Ultra-wealthy investors, with their $25 million in household net worth, might be a tempting lure for advisors who want their business. But any professional money manager who wants them as clients has to sharpen his or her knowledge about alternative investments.

NEW YORK—“In the next five years, the asset management industry will face the first fundamental change it has seen since the 1970s when ERISA was enacted,” said Don Putnam, chairman of financial services investment banking firm Grail Partners. Market instability, pressure on margins and consolidation will continue to roil the asset management industry, and in a desperate search for returns, investors will flock to actively managed ETFs.

Pre-retirees who continuously held a 401(k) plan with Fidelity Investments for the past 10 years more than doubled their account balances, according to data released by the Boston fund company on Thursday.

In an analysis of 10 million mutual fund votes cast between 2007 and 2009, the Investment Company Institute found that the number of shareholder proposals rose, and as such, funds approved 50% of these proposals in 2009, up from 35% in 2007.

After institutional assets in all asset classes—including mutual funds, pension funds, insurance companies, savings institutions and foundations—fell an average of 21.3% in 2008, they rebounded by 14% in 2009 to $25.3 trillion, on par with where they were in 2005 and 2006, The Conference Board said Thursday.

E Fund Management, the second-largest asset management company in China, is planning to offer the nation’s first registered hedge fund. Along with a long-only mutual fund, the two will invest in emerging markets securities. They will be run out of E Fund’s Hong Kong office.

NEW YORK - The main driver for the global economy is coming from emerging markets, said investment experts at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney at a breakfast Wednesday on the firm's outlook for next year.

The global mutual fund industry is on pace for $850 billion in net inflows to stock and bond mutual funds in 2010, according to Strategic Insight. More than half of the flows will go to funds domiciled outside the U.S., the research firm said.

BlackRock has launched the iShares MSCI Russia Capped Index Fund, completing its suite of BRIC single-country funds.

Charles Schwab Bank, a trust and custody service provider to 401(k) and other retirement plans, has added the Schwab Institutional Diversified International Trust Fund to its suite of collective trust funds.

Morningstar has named Peng Chen, president of its Ibbotson Associates unit, president of its global investment management division. In this role, Chen will be responsible for the company’s investment consulting, retirement advice and investment management operations in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, including Morningstar Associates, Ibbotson Associates, Morningstar Investment Services, Old Broad Street Research and Seeds Finance.

Despite the increasing proliferation of target-date funds in employer-sponsored retirement plans, many sponsors aren’t very knowledgeable about the funds, Janus found in a survey.

Sen. Christopher Dodd said the work is far from done in terms of regulatory reform.

Roth IRA conversions have spiked at Bank of America in the past year