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BlackRock Inc. announced in a regulatory filing that it plans to introduce a portfolio to give high-net-worth investors access to difficult-to-obtain hedge funds.

Symetra Life Insurance Company has launched a group variable annuity for the 403(b) and 457 marketplaces, with schools and nonprofits in mind.

Fidelity Investments has helped a record 185 brokers leave wirehouses and join registered investment advisory firms and independent broker-dealers so far in 2009, the company said Monday.

Despite heavy losses in their portfolios, most high-net-worth investors are sticking with their financial advisers, according to the Northstar/Sullivan Rebuilding Investor Trust Survey.

McNabb Succeeds Brennan as Vanguard Chairman

Fund managers are betting that emerging markets will be the best place for growth in 2010, due to their lack of correlation to the rest of the world and its sluggish, forecasted recovery, but lower correlation does not mean greater safety.

American Century Investments is a brand-new player in the international wealth management business-and that novelty could be an ace up its sleeve, according to the company's top executive.

Senate Bill Would Disclose Projected Income of 401(k) Balances

Thirty years after the Securities and Exchange Commission allowed an exemption to help mutual funds pay for promotional sales and marketing expenses, the agency is once again considering revising or renaming these controversial charges, known as 12b-1 fees.

The House passed a regulatory reform bill 223 to 202 on Friday that would significantly reshape the financial framework.

The House of Representatives refused to give rule-making authority over many investment advisory firms to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Charles Schwab Investment Management announced Friday that trading has begun in two new exchange-traded funds, with no online trading commissions for Schwab clients and low operating expense ratios.

Total assets of money market mutual funds fell by $360 million to end at $3.320 trillion for the week ending Dec. 9, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Charles Schwab and UBS join IBM, Lockheed Martin, Chevron and Southwest Airlines as the 30 companies offering the best 401(k) plans of 2009, according to a ranking by Brightscope.

The majority of high-net-worth investors have stuck with their financial advisers despite heavy losses to their portfolios as a result of the financial crisis that have left them “highly distrustful and disillusioned."

The economy may not have bounced back, but consumer confidence is on the upswing.

Disenchanted with mutual funds, some investors are turning to a pair of online registered investment advisory firms to create managed accounts that mimic the investments of preselected managers.

Long-term mutual funds took in $7.11 billion in the week ended Dec. 2, marking the 38th straight week of sales, which now total $384 billion for the period, the Investment Company Institute said.

T. Rowe Price is developing a family of actively managed exchange-traded funds, which would mark the old-line asset management firm’s first foray into the space, The Wall Street Journal reports.

PIMCO co-CIO Bill Gross told the Reuters Investment Outlook Summit he sees only faint economic growth in 2010, forcing the Federal Reserve to keep short-term interest rates low until it is certain the country is returning to “stable and substantial growth.”