Special Program Root Tag

Spectrem Group announced that its Spectrem Millionaire Investor Confidence Index fell two points in October to negative seven, its first decline since June.

Davis Advisors recently reduced the fees on nine of its mutual funds, including the Davis New York Venture, Selected American Shares and Clipper funds. By Fortune’s calculations, although the reduction averages about 20 basis points for each fund, the company is forfeiting $3.3 million a year in fees, which the magazine hails for “doing the right thing for investors.”

UBS Wealth Management Americas continued to hemorrhage new client assets in the third quarter at almost twice the clip from the previous quarter. Advisers also continued to walk out the door to the point that the company may not be able gain market share from competitors.

With all of the news about low 401(k) balances and half of the people in the country not being offered either a 401(k) or a pension plan, amazingly, an estimated 10% may be saving too much for retirement. That’s according to the estimates of Harvard University economist David Laibson.

The Timothy Plan, a fund company that aims to offer morally responsible choices, has launched a fund in direct response to government spending. The Defensive Strategies Fund aims to protest investors from either hyper-inflation or severe economic deflation by investing in commodities, real estate and Treasury inflation-protected securities.

Since the market’s low on March 9, small-cap value stocks have delivered some of the best performance, but experts believe the pendulum is swinging back in the direction of large-cap growth stocks, The Wall Street Journal reports.

PIMCO has launched two new Treasury exchange-traded funds to round out its offerings. These include the PIMCO 3-7 Year U.S. Treasury Index Fund and the interest-rate sensitive PIMCO 25+ Year Zero Coupon U.S. Treasury Index Fund.

MassMutual Retirement Services, a unit of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., announced that September was its best sales month ever.

Mutual fund investors are not alone in how the financial crisis has profoundly changed the way they approach saving, risk management and asset allocation. Without question, investors are more conservative and interested in flexible products that minimize risk and use alternative investments during heightened market volatility or a prolonged downturn as we saw in 2008.

McCann Takes Over as Chief of UBS Wealth

Senate Examines Risks Of Target-Date Funds

Some say that character is revealed by what you do when no one is looking. This may be true for an individual, but for leaders within organizations, I contend that perhaps character is revealed by what you do when everyone is looking. When the heat is on. When challenges abound. When resources are scarce, competition is fierce, and failure is a possibility.

Bank of America wants to remind everyone that Merrill Lynch is more than just a sideshow. Trying to move beyond the lawsuits and congressional hearings, BoA will finally start using Merrill for what it intended when it bought the beleaguered investment bank in January: to develop wealth management products.

NEW YORK - After the terrible performance of markets last year, disgruntled investors of all sizes are considering switching financial advisers to someone else, even if their own adviser buffered their portfolio so that it lost less than the market's overall 38% decline.

NEW YORK - Selling retirement income guarantees after a recession is like selling flood insurance after a flood. Timing is everything, and currently the timing could not be better.

NEW YORK – Charles Schwab has launched eight new exchange-traded funds that offer Schwab clients commission-free online trading in addition to low operating expense ratios.

The U.S. division of Sun Life Financial on Nov. 1 launched its first brand and marketing campaign, “Get to Know Sun Life,” comprised of television, print, online ads and a home website containing social media channels. The campaign, aimed at both investors and financial advisers, stresses the company’s 144-year history.

Although the Supreme Court appeared hesitant to intervene significantly on determining appropriate mutual fund fees as the Jones v. Harris Associates case began Monday, the justices appeared interested in setting a clearer standard on fees, The Wall Street Journal reports.

On news that the U.S. gross domestic product rose 3.5% in the third quarter and continued signs of ongoing momentum in the stock market, the Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator rose to 36.9 in October, up from 34.1 in September. It was the gauge’s highest reading since August 2008.

Among the many voices weighing in on the mutual fund fee case the Supreme Court heard on Monday, Jones v. Harris Associates, are John Bogle, founder of Vanguard, and former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins, who, predictably, respectively side with investors and the industry.