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Two leading consumer groups are lending their support to a Department of Labor proposal that would exclude stable-value funds, money market funds, guaranteed investment contracts and other types of capital preservation funds as defaults in 401(k) plans with automatic enrollment.

The Investment Company Institute released a report Tuesday indicating that mutual fund fees are at their lowest levels in 25 years, a result of investors’ increased appetite for low-cost funds and greater competition among mutual funds.

A Securities and Exchange Commission administrative law judge has dismissed charges against Scott G. Monson, the former general counsel for J.B. Oxford, for allegedly enabling late trading. The SEC had charged Monson with approving more than 12,000 late trades in 600 funds between June 2002 and September 2003.

Employers are doing a better job of helping their workers save for their retirement, with 69% permitting new employees to begin contributing to their 401(k) within three months, up from 65% in 2005, sister publication Employee Benefit News reports.

Despite the fact that many women are managing their retirement plans, many brokerage firms fail to offer online educational resources for this target group, according to a new report from Corporate Insight.

BlackRock has added nine lifecycle prepared portfolios to its offerings for investors, designed for use in defined contribution and long-term retirement plans.

Kensington Investment Group is set to launch the Kensington Global Infrastructure Fund, a first-of-its-kind in the U.S. next week. The fund will offer investors exposure to a portfolio of exchange-traded companies providing vital services for the growth and development of communities around the world.

Canada’s Joint Forum of Financial Market Regulators released proposed point-of-sale disclosure rules for mutual funds that would highlight a fund’s performance, risk and cost, Investment Executive reports.

A small news item last week on the launch of a financial literacy course in the Shelby County school district in Tennessee this fall got me thinking about a golden opportunity for individual mutual fund companies or, perhaps, the industry as a whole.

As Baby Boomers begin to retire in the coming years, insurers are scrambling to cash in on their wealth with variable annuities, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Benchmark indexes in India have been hitting new highs, driven by an expanding middle class anxious to invest in stocks, The New York Times reports.

Thomas Marsico, who rose to fame as a standout portfolio manager at Janus before founding Marciso Capital Management in 1997, has bought back his namesake firm from the Bank of America. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company, which specializes in growth-oriented equity, has $94 billion of assets under management and employs 71 people.

Many renewable energy funds are outpacing the S&P 500 Index’s 21% rise over the past 12 months and 5% climb year to date, CNNMoney reports.

At the beginning of this year, Barclays Global Advisors was the only investment management company with a bond exchange-traded fund. Today, however, there are nearly two dozen fixed-income ETFs from the likes of State Street Global Advisors and Vanguard, with more on the way from Bear Stearns and Ameristock.

The markets have gone global, and U.S. regulators ought to catch up if they want keep American exchanges competitive, allowing investors, particularly institutional, greater access, said participants during a roundtable discussion hosted by the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington last week.

Even if the Securities and Exchange Commission were to eliminate all restrictions on cross-border trading, retail investors' best bet for access to foreign markets might still be the good-old mutual fund, said panelists during a roundtable discussion in Washington last week hosted by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

NEW YORK-Global warming will have major economic, environmental and societal impacts if steps are not taken to help reduce the problem, and increasingly investors and the public are aware of this sobering fact.

A small news item last week on the launch of a financial literacy course in the Shelby County school district in Tennessee this fall got me thinking about a golden opportunity for individual mutual fund companies or, perhaps, the industry as a whole.

Fidelity Reduces Profit Goals for Adviser Services

Zader Becomes Chief Exec Of UMB Fund Services