Special Program Root Tag

While most mutual fund companies require four- and sometimes five-figure minimums to invest, they are increasingly offering far lower minimums to people in their 20s and 30s, The Wall Street Journal reports. On top of that, they are inundating them with such all-in-one products as target-date funds, online tools, easy-to-enroll individual retirement accounts and solutions for financial concerns other than retirement, such as paying off student loans, saving for a house and planning for their children’s college tuition.

Hedge funds that reported their second-quarter returns to Morningstar rose an average of 5.25% in the quarter, slightly underperforming the S&P 500’s 5.81% rise and the MSCI World Index’s 5.82% gain. Year-to-date, hedge funds are up 7.77%, beating the S&P 500’s 6% return but falling short of the MSCI World Index’s 8.01% gain.

Fidelity Investments has named Rodger A. Lawson, a longtime executive with Prudential Financial, president of the firm’s holding company, FMR Corp.

R.R. Donnelley and Microsoft have partnered to help mutual fund companies submit financial data in extensible business reporting language. R.R. Donnelley has been involved in the XBRL project since its inception and filed the first-ever mutual fund filing in May 2006, for Allegiant Funds.

Responding to criticisms by one labor group that because it votes its proxies so often in line with corporate management it has become an excessive “pay enabler,” AIM Investments’ board of directors set up a committee last year to revamp its proxy guidelines. And early results on this year’s corporate election season appear to indicate the changes have made a real difference, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The July 17 news item referring to a $75 million settlement between Edward Jones and the Securities and Exchange Commission over revenue-sharing agreements actually refers to the 2004 case. The SEC reissued its entire administrative proceedings due to a minor change that reflects its recent decision to permit Edward Jones to disclose its revenue-sharing agreements to investors at the time of a mutual fund purchase rather than requiring the firm to do so both at the time of purchase and redemption. MME regrets the error.

T. Rowe Price is distributing a new free publication, “Smart Financial Living: A Guide to Getting Started,” which offers advice for new investors on how to obtain financial goals.

A new socially responsible exchange-traded fund has expanded its aversion of particular stocks, such as tobacco and firearms, to include companies that do business in Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in ethnic fighting, the New York Daily News reports.

Attracted to the low costs of collective trusts, as well as the ability for investors to trade them daily at a time when many mutual funds are imposing short-term trading restrictions, 401(k) plans are increasingly turning to these alternatives, according to a white paper from AST Capital Trust Co.

While the S&P 500 has risen 11% and the average U.S. equity fund has gained 14% in the past five years, the five largest publicly traded investment management firms are up nearly 30%, The New York Times reports. Those five companies are AllianceBerstein, BlackRock, Franklin Resources, Legg Mason and T. Rowe Price.

Edward Jones agreed to pay $75 million, $37.5 million in disgorgement and $37.5 million in fines, to the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to properly disclose revenue-sharing and directed-brokerage agreements with seven mutual fund companies. In total, the brokerage promoted only 110 funds from those seven families since the 1990s, the SEC said. Many of the fund companies paid 25% of the advisory fees in revenue-sharing payments, and Edward Jones periodically sought to negotiate additional revenue-sharing payments from the preferred fund companies, the SEC said.

Recently, the National Bureau of Economic Research issued a report debunking the theory that as the 77 million Baby Boomers begin to turn 65 in 2011 and cash out of their stock and bond holdings, the markets will spiral into a bear market. The bureau's argument is that 401(k) assets currently represent only a small fraction of people's retirement portfolios, and as 401(k)s continue to grow markedly in coming years, the influx of new investments will buoy the markets.

Many twenty-somethings are more focused on obtaining a higher-paying, fulfilling career than they are on saving for retirement, The Wall Street Journal reports. They’re ignoring the mutual fund industry’s exhortations to start saving early, to take advantage of the power of compounding.

White-hot mutual funds always reach the end of the road, and this could be true for emerging market funds, Investor’s Business Daily reports. Even investors’ interest in these funds is beginning to dissipate.

Canadian hedge fund managers are posting strong returns, according to The Globe and Mail.

The soon to be combined enforcement divisions of the NASD and the New York Stock Exchange nixed its new name, which would have been Securities Industry Regulatory Authority, or SIRA, and changed it to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Mutual funds that invest in subprime mortgages are not concerned about ongoing woes in the market, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards has raised the ethical standard guidelines for the 55,000 planners in the nation with CFP credentials, in order for investors to get better help in selecting among increasingly complex financial choices.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-Alice Smith is a Power Boomer. A 53-year-old Medicare specialist with a graduate degree, Smith has amassed a stash of cash for retirement, and has a husband with his own account.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-Until now, plan providers have been slow to roll out Heath Savings Accounts (HSAs), perhaps because of murky rules, low maximum contribution levels and a seemingly limited business opportunity.