Special Program Root Tag

In a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox, Senate Finance Committee, Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) questioned whether the agency's rules have stalled inquiries about insider trading at a $7 billion hedge fund, Bloomberg News reports.

Interest in BRIC Funds, named for their focus on the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China, has been steadily rising, New Jersey's Daily Record reports.

The pension reform bill that President Bush just signed into law will allow those age 70-1/2 or older to donate up to $100,000 a year from their IRAs tax free to charity, USA Today reports. But the window of opportunity to do so applies only to 2006 and 2007, and the donations must be made directly to the charity.

While August is the time when mutual fund companies file their proxy votes with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it's still too early to tell how they stack up on defending shareholders' interests against those of company management, because not all fund companies have filed these reports yet.

The Investment Company Institute reiterated its opposition to the Securities and Exchange Commission's governance rule, MarketWatch reports.

Whether it's 25 years in the workforce or 25 years in a federal penitentiary, investors' concerns are the same, according to MarketWatch.

Vanguard founder Jack Bogle and finance professor Jeremy Siegel took their long-standing debate over the best way to index from the editorial pages to the airwaves of CNBC last week, MarketWatch reports.

"Go-anywhere," or "free-range" fund managers have come into the limelight once again. The funds can be seen wherever lists of top-performing mutual funds are on display, according to Bloomberg columnist Chet Currier.

Keith A. Tucker, who resigned as chief executive officer of Waddell & Reed last year, is looking to avoid paying $1.23 million in earnings taxes to Kansas City, where the company is headquartered and where he worked between 1992 and 2005, The Kansas City Star reports.

Investors can have a hard time identifying "closet indexing"--when an actively managed fund actually is built around an index--but new measures might be useful to predict fund performance.

Investors have plowed $23 billion into reinsurers, both new and established, since Hurricane Katrina, according to the Reinsurance Association of America.

As some believe an economic slowdown is approaching, many investors have begun bowing out of high-risk bonds in favor of more conservative investments. But when it comes to high-yield, high-risk municipal bonds, investors continue to rush in, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Tax-free 401(k) inheritance will not be limited to spouses only anymore. Due to a provision in the pension law signed last week by President Bush, anyone will be eligible to inherit the money without immediately paying taxes on the windfall, the Los Angeles Times reports. The rule could save heirs thousand of dollars each year in taxes.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's division of investment management has issued a response to queries from the American Bar Association regarding the U.S. Court of Appeals' decision to overturn the hedge fund registration rule.

Events on both sides of the world brought bad news to the energy and transportation sectors this month. Although the market disruption seemed short lived, the thwarted terror plot in London and British Petroleum's pipeline problems in Alaska highlighted long-term concerns that both industries face.

Fund firms are starting to transform and modernize their distribution strategies to remain competitive as the asset management business becomes more consultative and investors look for value-added relationships.

BISYS' recent announcement that it has hired Bear Stearns to explore "strategic alternatives" has fueled much speculation that it is up for sale and plans to sell the company in pieces.

The U.S. Southern District Court has rejected a class-action lawsuit against Salomon Smith Barney that accused the firm of paying undisclosed fees to financial advisers and brokers to promote its funds and of encouraging its proprietary funds to invest in clients of the firm's investment banking division.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a request for proposal for technology firms to submit solutions for applying Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) to SEC filings so that it is easier for investors and analysts to navigate the filings and readily compare financial information among companies.

Morningstar has developed a Web-based tool to help financial advisers generate reports to communicate to investors all the fees and state tax benefits associated with 529 college savings plans, in response to the new Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) interpretation that became effective on Aug. 7.