Special Program Root Tag

As the $144.5 billion playing field for target-date, or lifecycle, funds continues to get more and more crowded-last year fund companies introduced 302 target-date funds and assets soared 61%-the funds are diversifying their holdings to distinguish themselves. Others are extending their equity exposure with the goal of equipping longer-living retirees with enough money to last throughout their lifetimes.

Treadway Pays Second, $75,000 Fine to SEC Over Directed Brokerage

Hill Joins Dreyfus to Head Southern Sales Division

WASHINGTON-As the home office absorbs more of the functions formerly handled by financial advisers in the field, gatekeepers at these broker/dealers increasingly look for products that offer the total package: capacity, price, style, innovation and product support.

WASHINGTON-Most people are familiar with the saying "A Diamond is Forever" and know it is the slogan for De Beers diamond jewelry, as it has been used by the company for the past 59 years.

Generations X’s aren’t slackers; they just need more guidance, according to research sponsored by Charles Schwab.Those between 27 and 42 work hard, but they have more debt than cash, according to The Boston Globe. This, coupled with a distrust of financial services, means this generation lacks the guidance it needs to correct these problems.

Fidelity Investments and Wellington Management both increased their technology holdings in the first quarter, Bloomberg reports, citing regulatory filings. Altogether, Fidelity’s portfolios have a 20% exposure to information technology companies and 4.7% invested in telecommunication services companies.

Fidelity Investments said it didn’t sell 91% of its holdings in PetroChina, which invests in government-sponsored oil projects in Sudan, to appease activists, The Boston Globe reports.

A new mutual fund set to launch will allow average investors to invest in private equity, according to Dow Jones.

Although consumers are becoming increasingly conscious of taking care of the environment, there are not many options for investors to invest in alternative-energy and environmental technologies, according to BusinessWeek.Capitalizing on the shortage, Wall Street is creating new exchange-traded funds that provide investors with exposure to alternative energy companies in a straightforward, cost-effective way, yet without the risk of putting all their investments in one basket.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will create an office focused solely on returning restitution money to investors harmed by stock fraud, and one of its first missions will be to return the $3.4 million in fines and disgorgement to mutual fund investors impacted by the timing scandal, the Associated Press reports.The office makes sense, given how slowly the Commission currently is able to return the money, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox told a Senate appropriates subcommittee. The SEC has been working with the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Public Debt to invest money it collects in interest-bearing accounts.

Alan Greenspan just can’t stop working. The 81-year-old former head of the Federal Reserve has signed a consulting contract with PIMCO, the Newport Beach, Calif.-based bond behemoth, according to The New York Times. .

Randall R. Lee, regional director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Los Angeles office, will step down at the end of June to pursue opportunities in the private sector.

Janus and Invesco are close to repaying the combined $425 million in restitution they owe investors, the Rocky Mountain News reports.

Bowing to pressure from activists trying to get companies to remove their investments in the Darfur region, Fidelity Investments has 91% of its holdings in PetroChina, which invests in government-owned oil exploration in Sudan, the Associated Press reports, citing a regulatory filing.

The AFL-CIO sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission urging it to require Blackstone Group to register with it as a mutual fund company, given its holdings in investment securities.

The fund industry in South Korea will consolidate over the next two to three years, said Evan Hale, a managing director at Fidelity Investments who oversees the firm’s business in that nation as well as Hong Kong, Singapore and China, Reuters reports.

JPMorgan has fired senior portfolio manager Tang Jian from its joint venture in China due to an investigation by officials into his stock trades, Reuters repots. Chinese regulations bar fund managers from buying securities on their own. The investigation comes at a time when the regulators in China are cracking down on the market.

Claymore Advisors has licensed the three Morningstar Super Sector Indexes to create three exchange-traded funds that will focus on manufacturing, services and information.

Especially now that the news has leaked that hedge fund managers are raking in incredible salaries—some making more than $1 billion a year—Congress is undoubtedly going to be taking a serious look at increasing regulation of hedge funds, The Economic Times reports. And that’s got many hedge fund managers stepping up their political contributions, hiring lobbyists and, in some cases, forming their own political action committees.