Special Program Root Tag

In spite of the belief that very wealthy investors are most interested in preserving their wealth, 41% of those worth $25 million or more describe themselves as “aggressive” or “most aggressive” investors, according to a report from Spectrem Group, “The $25 Million Plus Investor.” Two-thirds of their assets are in stocks, alternatives, mutual funds, separately managed accounts, hedge funds, private equity, venture capital or other investable assets.

While there aren’t many frontier market indexes against which they can benchmark their investments, emerging-market funds are increasingly placing their bets on frontier markets, Dow Jones reports.

Of the nation’s 17 largest brokerage firms, discount firms continue to offer lower rates, Corporate Insight found. In fact, since the research company published its last Broker Monitor report in 2003, it found that a number of discount brokers have even lowered their rates.

When investors in 401(k) plans are given some kind of advice, whether it’s personal assistance in choosing their investment lineup, an advice tool or even a target-date fund that automatically adjusts holdings as an investor reaches closer to retirement, they enjoy higher returns, according to Charles Schwab.

At its open meeting on Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission decided to continue allowing companies to bar shareholders from nominating directors on company ballots, although investors may continue to nominate directors or seek to change company bylaws by waging costly proxy campaigns on their own.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has promoted Kay Lackey to associate regional director for enforcement in the Commission’s New York regional office. Previously, she was an assistant regional director for enforcement in the office. She replaces Helene Glotzer, who has left the SEC to work in the private sector.

Model, or overlay, portfolio programs, in which an asset manager hands over their investment process to a third party manager or major distributor, such as a brokerage firm or bank, so that they are no longer running money, offers advantages to both investors and asset managers, according to the Money Management Institute.

Rather than analyzing emerging markets as a whole before recommending clients invest in them, David Riedel, founder of Riedel Research Group, which specializes in Latin America , Asia and central and eastern Europe, takes a bottom-up approach that goes a step further by analyzing individual companies, Forbes reports.

First Trust Portfolios is the first company to license the Dow Jones Global Select Dividend Index to launch an exchange-traded fund, the First Trust Dow Jones Select Dividend Index Fund, which began trading on the American Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

Hearing a case of a 401(k) investor from Dallas who claimed his employer failed to execute an order, costing him $100,000, U.S. Supreme Court justices on Monday questioned business group arguments that 401(k) investors can only contest mismanagement of the plans through class-action lawsuits, Bloomberg reports.

Mutual fund companies are increasingly rolling out annuities and other retirement income products, competing head-to-head with insurance companies, the International Herald Tribune reports.

Fidelity Investments manages four of the nation’s 10 mutual funds to be hit with the largest redemptions year-to-date through October, Bloomberg reports.

Citibank has launched 11 new mutual funds in China, in partnership with BlackRock Merrill Lynch, including one called the Merrill Lynch International Investment Funds Series that will give Chinese investors exposure to international investments, as permitted under the QDII program, Global Banking News reports. To date, Citibank is offering the largest number of international mutual funds in China.

The Bank of New York Mellon has entered into an agreement with Western Securities of China to establish an asset management joint venture, of which BNY Mellon will own 49%.

Bank of America will begin promoting its retirement products and services on its automatic teller machines in January, expanding on its print and Internet advertising campaign launched earlier this month, sister publication ATM&Debit News reports.

Let's hope Social Security remains a fixture on the American scene. There are too many senior citizens dependent on it, and with $1 million seeming to be the magic retirement savings goal, a vast majority are going to fall far short of that. In fact, some experts have said that even wealthy investors will be at least partially dependent on Social Security.

Having been hit by bad calls on subprime investments, State Street Global Advisors and Bank of America’s Columbia Funds division are shaking up the ranks of their investment teams, The Wall Street Journal reports.

While target-date funds adjust a portfolio’s level of risk as an investor gets closer to their target retirement date, they fail to address the various risk tolerances of different investors. Thus, fund companies have begun working on offering tailored target-date funds to 401(k) plan sponsors, The Wall Street Journal reports.

In a surprise twist in the trial of Michael Mendelson, one of the two managers of the collapsed hedge fund Portus Alternative Asset Management, he reached a plea agreement by pleading guilty and testifying against his former partner, Boaz Manor, the Edmonton Journal reports. Still, Mendelson was sentenced to two years in prison.

Much as target-date funds are gaining traction in 401(k) plans, parents investing in 529 college savings plans are overwhelmingly preferring age-based funds that become more conservative as a child’s first year of college approaches, Investment News reports, citing speakers at the recent 529 Technical Conference.