Special Program Root Tag

To prevent other target-date investors from being burned as so many were in 2008, when the average 2010 and 2015 fund lost 25% of its value or more, more advisers are telling their clients that they need to look closely at the asset allocation and glidepaths of these funds so that half of their portfolios are not exposed to stocks on the eve of their retirement.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a Wells notice to Charles Schwab informing the company it plans to sue it over two bond funds that held mortgage securities since the company marketed the funds as safe, high-yielding alternatives to money market funds.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has tapped Adam Storch to be the managing executive of the newly created Division of Enforcement.

The investors buying into stocks and sending the Dow up 53% since its March 9 low have continued to be pension plans and hedge funds; retail investors in mutual funds are certainly not driving those sales, the Washington Post reports. Only in the past two weeks have fund companies and financial advisers heard from retail investors curious about re-entering the market.

In the six months through September, inflows to mutual funds in Japan rose 27% to $23.5 billion, according to the Investment Trust Association of Japan. In the first half of the year, the average Japanese mutual fund rose 17.2%, according to Nomura Research Institute.

For the first time ever, the number of mass affluent investors who are choosing independent financial planners is on par with those using full-service brokers, according to a new report from the Spectrem Group.

More than three-quarters, 77%, of 401(k) investors have not made any changes in the past 12 months leading up to April, J.P. Morgan Retirement Plan Services found in a survey titled “Anything But Certain.”

Long-term stock and bond mutual funds took in $11.41 billion in the week ended Oct. 7, marking the 30th straight week of inflows, which now total $316 billion, the Investment Company Institute said.

As many investors have become totally risk-averse following the market crash, UBS Wealth Management has just issued a retirement planning report that proposes segmenting the process into three buckets.

National Financial, Fidelity Investments' clearing unit, has started a program that enables retail broker/dealers to deposit or "sweep" cash in their customers' eligible brokerage accounts into multiple interest-bearing bank accounts that offer Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. coverage.

The variable annuity value proposition appears to be eroding, as mutual fund sales outpaced those of annuities during the second quarter, and more of the same is expected through next year.

Although JPMorgan Chase took in $16.8 billion into its stock and bond funds in the first nine months of this year, making it the fourth best-selling fund house.

The third quarter saw a strong comeback period for open-ended mutual funds, and a stellar one for exchange-traded funds, according to Morningstar.

The House Financial Services Committee began discussions Wednesday on how to strengthen financial services oversight, beginning with moving derivative trading to regulated markets, the Associated Press reports. Earlier, the committee had considered an outright ban, but financial services companies maintained that derivatives are a key hedging strategy.

Improved capital and stock prices are proving that more than small “green shoots” are nudging the economy back to a recovery and setting the stage for IPOs, LBOs and M&As, Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman said Wednesday, Reuters reports.

Institutional investors are increasingly optimistic about the markets and the economy, the Bank of America Merrill Lynch found in its October survey of fund managers. In fact, their risk appetite is at the highest point in three years.

Stunned by losses in the financial crisis, Americans will be investing significantly less in the future, according to a new survey by consulting firm AlixPartners.

Vanguard is temporarily closing its top-performing Vanguard Capital Value Fund, a $742 million fund that rose 68.5% year-to-date through the end of September. In that period of time, assets in the fund have more than tripled.

While it’s good news for investors that a majority of mutual fund boards have adopted the best practices advocated by the Investment Company Institute and the Independent Directors Council, some critics believe those suggested practices should be mandatory.

Flows into equity funds have remained flat ever since the market bottomed out on March 9, an indication that investors remain spooked by the market’s sharp decline last year—despite the S&P 500’s year-to-date 59% gain.