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Municipal bond mutual funds reported another healthy slug of new money last week as demand for high-quality fixed income continued to drive investment flows. Muni funds that report their figures weekly posted a net inflow of $728.4 million during the week ended Aug. 25, according to Lipper FMI.

U.S. small-cap equities on the Russell 2000 Index rallied to 604.87 by the market close of Aug. 25, up from the near 52-week low of 595.59 the previous day. The Aug. 24 close was only 40 points higher than the September 2, 2009 low of 555.83.

When Grail Advisors officially closes two of its active exchange-traded funds prior to the market bell on Aug. 30, the total universe of active ETFs will fall to just 28.

Outflows slowed to $597.3 million the week ending Aug. 23 after hemorrhaging $4.99 billion the week before, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com. Total assets declined slightly to $340.75 billion from $341.34 billion.

Fund managers and other experts say that target-date funds need to increase the amount of information they provide investors to understand their investment risk. But they don’t want the Securities and Exchange Commission to change the way the funds are named.

A group of investors Wednesday sued the accounting giant Ernst & Young for allegedly misrepresenting the financial status of the defunct hedge fund Parkcentral Global after they lost a total of $17 million in the fund.

Although it supports the Securities Exchange Commission’s goal of bringing more disclosure to target-date funds, the proposal to include asset allocation information in the fund’s name will only confuse investors, BackRock said in a letter to the agency this week.

Equity market volatility and investors’ subsequent flight to fixed income seems to be spurring product manufacturers to focus more on an area that currently has seen sparse investor interest: International fixed income.

Independent advisors are still “somewhat conservative” in their outlook, but there are some bright spots in their expectations, according to a survey from Charles Schwab.

Confidence among high-net-worth investors tumbled in August, according to a monthly survey by Spectrem Group.

Despite the fact mergers and acquisitions have gone dormant this year, deals are expected to surge in the next six months.

Long-short strategies are outperforming—or at least underperforming less—than traditional equity plays, according to a white paper by Credit Suisse.

A recent realignment of The Hartford Financial Services Group resulted in a new position for Jim Davey running the company’s mutual fund business.

Parents working with financial advisors are saving more for college than those who don’t, according to a new study by Fidelity Investments.

People in their 20s are generally considered atypical clients for financial planners. They are at the beginning of their professional careers, having accumulated little assets, contributed little to their 401(k)s and are at least 40 years from retirement.

John Hancock Retirement Plan Services announced it will add two new Retirement Choices target-date portfolios, designed to take participants “to” retirement and allow the participant to select another investment strategy at that point.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has given money market funds a reprieve from following an amendment to money market fund regulations requiring allowing them to approve of the credit rating agencies they must use to determine whether a security is eligible for investment.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney has recruited Ben Dembin and Francis Schiavetti, who previously oversaw $107 million in client assets and together generated $1.2 million in annual fees and commissions at Wells Fargo.

India’s largest bank-sponsored mutual fund has replaced four different front, middle and back office systems with one.

Cash continues flooding into municipal bond mutual funds as retail investors embrace yields many once scorned as being far too low.