Special Program Root Tag

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney has added a fixed income annuity from Nationwide to its unified managed account platform, so that investors have the option of selecting lifetime income. The brokerage is calling the option Select Retirement.

Exchange-traded funds have attracted $35 billion so far this year, far less than in previous years, but growth is likely to return at a rapid clip once the recession winds down, according to Strategic Insight. By comparison, investors have withdrawn $49 billion from mutual funds.

The web-based 401(k) software has created a Plan Management Dashboard that rates plans for sponsors and advisers and how the scores compare to similar plans.

Fidelity Investments is giving its retail and institutional brokerage clients access to the initial public offerings and follow-on equity offerings underwritten by Deutsche Bank.

Between November and March, hedging programs at variable annuity firms supported 94% of their guarantees, up from 93% in the prior period, Milliman said.

UBS has stopped selling leveraged exchange-traded funds, saying that the funds don’t conform to its belief in long-term investing due to the “short-term nature of these securities.”

Securian Retirement is urging sponsors that offer stable-value funds in their 401(k) plan to be aware that there can still be risks in such funds, depending on their holdings and the stability of the financial markets. Such funds need to be monitored, Securian says.

Putnam Investments is planning to cut the fees on many of its funds and tie the fees to the performance of a number of its funds, the company announced Tuesday.

The State Street Investor Confidence Index rose 3.6 points in July 10 119.4, up from 115.8 in June.

After earlier warning that it was concerned about investors holding leveraged exchange-traded funds for 10 days or longer, FINRA, in its latest podcast, appears to be backpedaling.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s new Investor Advisor Committee, in its first meeting this coming Monday, will discuss mutual fund point-of-sale and broker fee disclosures as well as fee transparency and other disclosures in 401(k) plans.

The Hartford has cut nearly 270 jobs in its investment products division, and more layoffs are expected, The Hartford Courant reports. The division sells variable annuities, mutual funds and retirement plans.

The Alternative Investment Management Association is siding with the U.K. on more lenient rules for hedge funds, private equity and other alternative investments, warning that the proposed regulations in the Alternative Investment Funds Directive “would hit fund managers and investors around the world” by making it difficult for them to access the European Union market.

Despite that at 84%, the vast majority of advisers come into contact with a client with Alzheimer's disease, only 4% of the 350 advisers polled by Fidelity Investments feel they have the tools and training necessary to help those clients.

Haldeman Becomes CEO Of Freddie Mac

Capital Markets Committee Wants Mutual Fund Taxes Deferred

For anyone in a rush to snap up wealth management firms, or who thinks Wilmington Trust Corp. is poised for a buying spree, Ted T. Cecala says think again.

Firms attempting to prepare and strengthen their risk management systems in this rapidly changing regulatory landscape are finding it's a bit like trying to hit a moving target.

NEW YORK -- Most retirement planners agree that retirees should maintain some equity exposure during retirement in order to keep up with inflation and a retirement that could last three decades or longer, but what this level of exposure should be -- and whether or not the government should set some parameters -- is being widely debated.

The U.S. should adopt a Systemic Risk Council made up of top financial regulators, according to Investment Company Institute President and CEO Paul Schott Stevens, during testimony July 23 before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee.