Special Program Root Tag

Four “ultra” ProFunds exchange-traded funds, which aim to produce 200% of their stock benchmarks, paid out capital gains distributions of $3.80 to $6.80 a share last week, The Wall Street Journal reports.

As more and more investors rely on mutual funds through their companies’ 401(k) plans in preparing for retirement, regulators and rule makers have begun looking more closely at employer-sponsored retirement plans, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Investors pushed out of hedge funds by the new accreditation rules will likely flock to long/short funds that mimic the high-stakes hedge fund tactics, according to HedgeWorld. And fund companies are getting ready with new products.

Despite corporate America’s continued banner days, the money didn’t flow over for income-hungry investors this year, as companies were less generous than expected with their dividends.

An arbitration panel organized by the NASD has found a unit of Ameriprise, Securities America, and one of its stockbrokers guilty of steering three retired airline pilots into high-fee mutual funds, The Wall Street Journal reports.

New York-based Marsh & McLennan has agreed to sell its beleaguered Putnam Investments business to Power Corp., a Canadian financial services firm based in Montreal , according to the Wall Street Journal.

Alps Advisers, an asset manager based in Denver, has completed its acquisition of the Liberty All-Star Funds management business from Banc of America Investment Advisors..

Credit Suisse announced it is buying a majority interest in a Brazilian asset management and private banking company.

Retirees traditionally have moved the majority of their portfolios to stocks, but in light of increasing awareness of the likelihood of a long retirement—coupled with low tax rates on dividends—they are moving more of their money into dividend-paying stocks.

Seventy-six percent of 780 producers surveyed for John Hancock College Savings said that 529s represent only 1% to 4% of their business. But in a survey of investors, more than two-thirds of parents and one-half of grandparents planned to contribute to 529 plans.

At the start of the new year, the Securities and Exchange Commission is requiring funds-of-funds not just to present their overlay expense ratio but the underlying expenses of the funds they invest in, the Associated Press reports.

Responding to sponsors’ increasing interest in higher returns and more transparent fees, Mercer Investment Consulting will stray away from its tradition of recommending mutual funds, Defined Contributions & Savings Plan Alert reports.

Arizona has decided to extend its 529 college savings plan contract with Waddell & Reed for three years, principally because of strong performance, competitive fees and investment choices, The Kansas City Star reports.

International stocks and mutual funds are expected to extend their impressive rally of this year into 2007, with more investors pouring money into them, Florida’s Sun-Sentinel reports.

Although there were earlier reports that Putnam had its first positive month of inflows in three years, in October, and that the value of its name still held enough clout to command a top selling price, now there are reports that ongoing redemptions and poor performance could hurt those chances.

Investors have filed a lawsuit against American Funds, alleging that the firm paid brokers kickbacks to sell its funds using assets rightfully belonging to investors, Reuters reports.

Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $208 million to the office of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and $17 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle charges that it permitted market timing in its mutual funds and that its broker/dealer allowed clients to late trade funds.

As a result of an internal probe, Fidelity Investments agreed to repay $42 million, plus interest, to funds whose traders and portfolio managers steered trades to a brokerage firm that lavished them with gifts. A final settlement, however, with the Securities and Exchange Commission is still pending.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson discussed with German Leaders the possibility of including hedge fund transparency among the issues broached by the powerful, multi-national Group of Eight, according to the Associated Press.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson discussed with German Leaders the possibility of including hedge fund transparency among the issues broached by the powerful, multi-national Group of Eight, according to the Associated Press.