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American Funds has sold $187 million, or 99% of its original $190 million, holdings via three mutual funds in PetroChina shares, a company Investors Against Genocide has railed against for funding genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. The latest SEC filings show the fund company’s holdings as of Dec. 31 at a mere $2.7 million.
February 18 -
Investment managers around the world are cautiously optimistic about stocks in the coming year but more guarded about bonds, Towers Watson found in a survey of 98 managers with $13.3 trillion of assets under management. They foresee economic growth, albeit modestly.
February 17 -
When Mary Schapiro took office as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission last year, she faced a myriad of issues related to the financial crisis—and outlined a series of new regulations that, so far, have come up short, The Washington Post reports.
February 17 -
Transamerica Life Insurance Co. has enhanced the guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit schedule for its Retirement Income Choice 1.2 and Retirement Income Choice 1.4 annuity riders. Each rider now pays one percentage more a year.
February 17 -
BlackRock isn’t satisfied with its December 2009 acquisition of Barclays Global Investors, according to a Daily Mail of London report. Now the $2.7 trillion investment giant is considering buying hedge fund manager of managers Man Group.
February 17 -
Charles Schwab is attracting a slew of new assets, and daily average trades are rising. New and established clients brought the company $6 billion of net new assets in January, according to its monthly market activity report. Total client assets rose 27% from a year earlier, to $1.401 trillion, but were down 2% from December because of difficult market conditions.
February 17 -
Tom O’Halloran, manager of the Lord Abbett Developing Growth Fund, a small-cap fund that has increased 43% over the past year and 5.5% over the past decade—putting it in the top 3% of its peers, believes technology stocks will lead a continued market rebound.
February 17 - Money Management Executive
F-Squared Investments has formed the AllWeather Advisory Board, a diverse group of industry professionals who will work to improve state-of-the-art retirement income solutions for investors and funding requirements for pensions, endowments and foundations.
February 17 -
JPMorgan’s five-year plan to boost its mutual fund business appears to be paying off, with the company attracting $26 billion in 2008, making it the third best-selling fund family for the year, excluding money market funds, behind Vanguard and PIMCO. In 2004, investors redeemed $1.6 billion from JPMorgan funds. Still, however, with $91 billion in assets under management, however, JPMorgan is now the 14th-largest fund company in the nation.
February 17 -
Average 401(k) balances ended 2009 at $64,200, rising 28% for the year and 5.7% in the fourth quarter, Fidelity reported Wednesday, citing the activity of its 11 million participants in more than 17,000 defined contribution plans.
February 17 -
To enable portfolio managers of its target-date funds to respond more nimbly to extreme market volatility, starting in April, AllianceBernstein will allow these funds to move up to 20% of their assets from equities and real estate investment trusts into bonds and cash.
February 17 -
Fidelity Investments may possess the largest supermarket of mutual funds, $3.2 trillion of assets under administration and $1.5 trillion under management.
February 17 -
Seventy-eight percent of advisers increased the number and duration of client contacts in 2009 to regain their trust after the very difficult year before, and while that has distracted many from business strategies, 68% of advisers are confident about their practices in the coming year. This is according to a survey of 1,804 advisers and 150 broker/dealers that Curian Capital conducted via Zoomerang.
February 16 -
Contributing to retirement savings is not a strong suit for most Americans, which is why ING Group Inc. wants to make it easier for individuals to develop that much-needed nest egg.
February 16 -
Although the Obama administration recently gave its stamp of approval on annuities as a solution for retirement income, many professionals warn that their low yields and increasing fees should give investors pause, The Wall Street Journal reports.
February 16 - Money Management Executive
A provision that expired last year permits people age 70-1/2 to give money from their IRA to charities without incurring taxes could be reinstated.
February 16 -
Invesco has launched a defined contribution website at invesco.com/dc aimed at plan sponsors, consultants, recordkeepers and advisers. It will include information as well as brochures, calculators, whitepapers and videos.
February 16 -
U.S. stock mutual funds received $2.7 billion in inflows in January, reversing four consecutive months of outflows. “I think investors are growing more comfortable coming back into the stock market after 2009’s rally,” Morningstar Senior Fund Analyst Sonya Morris told The Wall Street Journal. “They’re beginning to show signs of shaking off some of the fear that was induced from 2008’s downturn.”
February 16 - Money Management Executive
The ability to adapt to changing market conditions has always been a critical element for success in the financial services arena. But in today's market, asset managers will have to go beyond adaptation and in many respects reinvent themselves in order to ride out a perfect storm of industry pressures.
February 15 -