Special Program Root Tag

At a users conference in Pittsburgh at the end of September, Broadridge Financial Solutions introduced "a tool for strategic thinkers."

Electronic tools have made multi-asset class trading a reality for envelope-pushing asset managers.

Managing risk now means a lot more, operationally, than just watching out for mistakes in the middle and back offices, in mismatching details of transactions.

TowerGroup

You can't manage what you don't measure. Which used to mean it was pretty hard to manage the sales of funds through brokers, registered investment advisers, banks and other channels.

Citigroup has become the second fund administrator to implement a new technology platform from youDevise in London specifically designed for servicing funds of hedge funds.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. has begun testing an enhanced version of its cost-basis reporting service to help financial intermediaries pass cost-basis information to each other when customer assets move from one firm to another.

Auto enrollment, escalation and target-date features in 401(k) plans are effective in boosting savings substantially, especially for lower-income workers, according to a report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association.

TD Ameritrade is lifting the trading commissions on 101 exchange-traded funds indefinitely. Investors must hold the ETFs for at least 30 days, however; otherwise they will be charged the standard $9.99 fee.

Vanguard Group removed AllianceBernstein as manager of the Vanguard U.S. Growth Fund, replacing it with Wellington Management and Delaware Investments. William Blair will continue to run one-third of the fund.

While hedge funds that have sought non-traditional investors have gone the ’40 Act route through funds-of-funds structures, they should consider separately managed accounts, according to a report from Pershing and Greenwich Associates based on detailed interviews with 41 hedge fund and investment managers and 27 institutional investors.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. has been selected to launch and manage a new advisor-sold 529 college savings program in Connecticut, the state’s treasurer announced Wednesday.

Putnam Investments will become the exclusive mutual fund sponsor of the U.S. Ski Team and sponsor of U.S. Snowboarding, for the next four seasons sponsoring U.S. athletes in the sports of alpine, freestyle and cross-country skiing, ski jumping, snowboarding and Nordic combined skiing.

Mutual of Omaha is holding 401(k) sales seminars, or boot camps, for advisers to 401(k) plans over the next year. The first six cities where the seminars will be held are Lansing, Mich., Pittsburgh, Orlando, Minneapolis, Kansas City and Dallas. Following the seminars, participants will receive a year’s worth of educational e-newsletters, and access to webinars and tools.

To help investors take advantage of opportunities created by shifting financial trends, Russell Investments has launched the Russell Global Infrastructure Fund and the Russell Global Credit Strategies Fund and added the two to the Russell LifePoints Funds Target Portfolio Series and the Russell Core Model Strategies.

UAT said it received a patent for technology that connects external money managers to computing platforms in real-time.

Dreyfus announced Wednesday at its annual national sales meeting that all of its wholesalers are getting iPads so that they will be able to share information with brokers and other clients more easily.

Long-term mutual funds netted $3.256 billion in the week ended Sept. 29, the Investment Company Institute said.

Registered investment advisers’ assets under management increased 13.4% from April 2009 to April 2010, or $4.6 trillion, according to the Investment Adviser Association/National Regulatory Services’ Evolution Revolution 2010 report.

Standard & Poor’s has announced the finalists for its inaugural U.S. Mutual Fund Excellence Awards program.There are 29 funds, from a starting pool of 19,000 mutual funds. Seventeen fund families are represented across ten categories. Gold, silver and bronze award recipients in each category will be announced during a live video broadcast in November, from S&P’s offices, the company said.