Special Program Root Tag

Standard & Poor's released its latest mutual fund scorecard, which measures the consistency of top mutual fund performers over time. Through June 30, 2006, S&P's scorecard shows very few funds manage to consistently repeat top-half or top-quartile performance.

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 Monday, Aug. 7.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has proposed changes that would simplify 529 college savings plan advertising, Dow Jones reports.

While companies that have employed automatic 401(k) enrollment in the past have tended to herd those investors to guaranteed investment contracts and stable-value, balanced and money-market funds, the Pension Protection Act of 2006 is likely to result in more aggressive choices, MarketWatch reports.

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.

Barclays Global Advisors and PowerShares have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer exchange-traded funds that will track indexes of preferred shares, The Wall Street Journal reports.

A new study by an assistant professor of economics at Brown University had found that unlike pension funds, insurance companies, banks and financial advisers, mutual fund portfolio managers fail to monitor merger and acquisition activity by companies they are invested in, The New York Times reports.

Some exchange-traded funds are adopting humorous ticker symbols, in an effort to be memorable and stand out in an increasingly crowded field, MarketWatch reports.

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 encouraging its proprietary funds to invest in clients of the firm's investment banking division, New York Law Journal reports.

Hewitt Associates, the Linconshire, Ill.-based human resources consulting and benefits plan administrator, named Russell P. Frandin its new chairman and chief executive.

Long-term investors with income on their mind have essentially been unaffected by the Federal Reserve raising interest rates two years in a row, according to Bloomberg columnist Chet Currier.

Now that Securities and Exchange Commission's hedge fund registration rule has been defeated, many hedge fund advisors are trying to determine the smartest compliance strategy.

After tumbling on news of a static interest rate from the Federal Reserve Bank, markets began to recover on the day when news of a massive terrorist plot foiled in London dominated headlines, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission Division of Investment Management late Thursday issued a seven-page response to queries from the American Bar Association regarding the U.S. Court of Appeals decision to overturn hedge fund registration rules.

Exchange-traded funds focused on international holdings continue to take the investment world by storm. In the past 12 months, total ETF assets rose 38% to $335.1 billion, while global ETFs almost doubled to $82.8 billion, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Just because the Securities and Exchange Commission will not pursue the hedge fund registration rule struck down by the courts, does not mean Chairman Christopher Cox has abandoned efforts to increase oversight of hedge funds.

What's in a name?

Firms are developing new products and repositioning old ones to vie for the business of the nation's 77 million Baby Boomers as they start planning for retirement.

Jennison Dryden Mutual Funds, Prudential Financial's proprietary fund family, has introduced Investment Monitor, a diagnostic plan-level review that helps financial advisers meet their 401(k) fiduciary responsibility by determining if the investments in a 401(k) plan are performing as expected against their relevant benchmarks and peer groups.

As much as investors and fund managers strive to beat the index, the task is a difficult one and usually unsuccessful.