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Retirees maybe overspending their retirement savings, as 48% of the $9 trillion that people aged 65 and older have saved is being used for 4% or larger annual drawdown, according to Hearts & Wallets, a research company that looks at the spending patterns of various demographic age groups.

The Insured Retirement Institute is applauding the confirmation from Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro that her staff is developing a variable annuity summary prospectus. IRI has long called for—and officially petitioned—the SEC to develop such a document to advance the interests of the investing public, and to reduce the burden placed on its members, which includes insurers, to produce lengthy documents that consumers traditionally ignore because of their complexity.

U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Johnny Isakson (R-GA) and Herb Kohl (D-WI) have introduced a bill aimed at helping Americans save enough so that they will not be in danger of outliving their retirement savings.

Morningstar has started publishing credit ratings for about 100 of the largest U.S. companies. Over the next year, it plans to produce credit ratings for up to 1,000 companies currently covered by its equity analyst team. The ratings are available for free for institutional equity research clients at its website.

Fidelity Names Perold Asset Management Chief

Circuit Court Permits 401(k) Lawsuit Against Wal-Mart to Be Heard

Armed with a slew of wealth management veterans who chose to jump ship from U.S. Trust after it was acquired by Bank of America, Evercore Wealth Management has nearly doubled its assets under management to $1.4 billion in the past six months, but if that wasn't already impressive, the New York company's top executive expects to nearly quadruple that and reach $5 billion in the next five years.

While it may be too late for the Securities and Exchange Commission to pass any new regulations before the end of the year, financial experts anticipate major financial legislation and regulation to occur sometime in early 2010.

In the "new normal" that follows this recession, exchange-traded funds will be ideally positioned for a new world of lower expenses, lower returns and exposure to a wide variety of asset classes, experts say.

SunGard has created a Cost Basis Reporting Engine for mutual fund and other financial services companies. Compatible with any back-office system, it enables companies to meet the new cost-basis reporting requirements in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act passed on Oct. 10, 2008.

A group of Democratic lawmakers has introduced legislation that would impose a tax on Wall Street securities transactions.

Despite the painful headlines, government bailouts and predictions of a flood of advisors going independent, wirehouses have retained both advisors and high-net-worth assets and will continue to dominate this space, according to a new report by Cerulli Associates.

The House’s decision to extend the current estate tax rate did not come as a surprise to industry observers, who never believed the government would allow the tax to expire altogether and give up the much needed revenue.

Managers of 529 college-savings plans have always competed on fees, but the latest round of the bidding war promises to be the most intense.

Total assets of money market mutual funds fell by $8.36 billion to $3.319 trillion for the week ending Dec. 2 as retail and institutional investors sought out greater yields, according to the Investment Company Institute.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is working on considerable 12b-1 reform for 2010 that could go beyond mere disclosure or a more appropriate name for the fees, Chairman Mary Schapiro told the Consumer Federation of America’s 21st Annual Financial Services Conference. One recent suggestion for reforming the fees was to rename them “marketing and fund promotion fees.”

Investment consulting firms polled by the Social Investment Forum said their clients are increasingly interested in environmental, social and governance investing (ESG). Fifty-six percent of respondents noted a growing interest among their clients in integrating ESG criteria in their investment policies over the last 12 months, and 88% expect growing client interest in the next three years.

Pacific Investment Management Co. is the latest company to jump into the municipal bond exchange-traded fund business.

The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund has formed an alliance with VolunteerMatch whereby visitors to Fidelity’s website, www.charitablegift.org, find a link to VolunteerMatch’s website, where they can discover volunteer opportunities with 73,000 participating organizations nationwide.

Great-West Retirement Services has won New Hampshire’s 457 account, serving 5,800 state employees with more than $170 million in assets.