Special Program Root Tag

WASHINGTON-Democratic leaders of the House Financial Services Committee are exploring creating a federal regulator or modifying a multi-state compact to increase oversight and provide more uniform standards for insurers of municipal bonds and other financial products.

In lockstep with a broadened direction by insurance firms to strip off the complex bells-and-whistles riders and bonuses of the recent past and to issue packaged retirement income solutions-and meet the demands of the new buzzword: decumulation-the other publication I edit, Annuity Market News just relaunched on Friday as Retirement Income Reporter.

Fetting Takes Reins At Legg Mason

The Baby Boomer generation is once again taking credit for saving the economy, according to Reuters.

MIAMI-Unified managed accounts (UMAs) continue to grow at the expense of legacy separately managed accounts (SMAs), according to a presentation at the National Investment Company Service Association's "7th Annual Managed Accounts Technology and Operations Conference" here last week, at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa.

Asset managers afraid to leave the safety of the herd are missing out on crucial opportunities for growth in international and emerging markets.

A wide range of small businesses in the U.S. are beginning to take advantage of weak U.S. dollar’s exchange rate to market their products to Europe and Latin America. “We are hearing about the credit crisis every day, but we are not hearing enough about how the weak dollar is a good thing for business,” Raphael Amit, a professor of entrepreneurship at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, told The New York Times. “It is one of the things that will help prevent a recession. When the dollar is weak, imports are more expensive. So relatively speaking, domestic production and services are more competitive. Simple as that.”

The Baby Boomer generation is once again taking credit for saving the economy, according to Reuters. The enormous spending power of the 76 million citizens born between 1946 and 1964 has helped keep the last two consumer-led recessions short and shallow.

TrimTabs is forecasting January as another down month for stock funds, while predicting that bond funds will show a slight uptick in incoming funds.

Bonds are beginning to replace equities in pension funds in the United Kingdom, according to The Financial Times.

Investors reversed November's outflow in December, putting $1.29 billion of new money into stock funds, according to the Investment Company Institute. In November, stock funds gave up $9.94 billion as markets looked shaky in the wake of the credit crunch and a mixed economic picture.

Envestnet Asset Management has inked an alliance with H&R Block Financial Advisors that will give Envestnet clients access to H&R’s professionals for investment advice and services.

Prescott Joins FundQuest As Retirement Chief

Wisdom Tree Investments of New York is set to become the first asset management firm to launch an exchange-traded fund that invests exclusively in the emerging market country of India, with the planned launch of the Wisdom Tree India Earnings Fund ETF by the end of February.

NEW YORK-The marketplace for sub-advised and multi-managed funds is projected to continue growing as financial products become more complicated and fund shops look to outsource specialized work.

Last week's extreme volatility in the U.S. and international stock markets has many retirees and Baby Boomers approaching retirement worried that their life savings will fall short of expectations.

Way to go. Some marketing experts are beginning to get it right. The "Magical Mystery Tour" that's been the past 60 years of Baby Boomer buying power doesn't have to end with mutual fund companies instilling the dreaded fear of outliving one's retirement savings, dying impoverished and, possibly, alone.

Insured Bond Funds Quietly Outperform

UBS Global Asset Management and Genworth Financial plan to introduce a guaranteed income for life option for 401(k) participants.

Bank of New York Mellon announced Tuesday that it had completed its purchase of Arx Capital Management, a Rio de Janeiro independent asset manager. Arx Capital specializes in Brazilian multi-strategy, long-short and long-only investment strategies and has more than $2.8 billion of assets under management. The price of the acquisition, which was announced on Nov. 13, was not disclosed. Arx Capital will be integrated into BNY Mellon Asset Management Brasil. The company said that the combined business will be one of the largest asset assets managers in the country.