Special Program Root Tag

Investors are not adequately prepared financially for retirement, despite participation in retirement plans increasing, according to a "401(k) Benchmarking" survey by Deloitte Consulting of New York, in which more than 800 plan sponsors were surveyed electronically. Deloitte conducted the survey in conjunction with the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists, both of Brookfield, Wisc.

Optimistic by nature, Americans are inclined to believe that there is a technology fix for nearly every problem. While that may or may not be the case, there is at least one challenge in the asset management business that can be effectively addressed by a more aggressive application of the current generation of e-business tools: wholesaler productivity.

Merger and acquisition activity within the investment advisory industry is red hot this year, with the second quarter of 2006 already shaping up to be active.

Legg Mason elected its president, James Hirschmann, elected chief operating officer.

DWS Scudder, a division of Deutsche Asset Management, has launched two global funds to capitalize on the firms' global network.

Eighty-nine asset management deals were announced during the first half of the year, a record for number of deals in any half year, according to a report by Putnam Lovell NBF Securities.

The Senate has unanimously approved a bill that would tighten rules governing sales of mutual funds and life insurance to members of the military, The New York Times reports.

Fidelity Brokerage reported its assets in the second quarter rose 21% to $1.5 trillion. Driving those strong sales was money invested in individual retirement accounts, money market funds and Fidelity's target-date funds, the Freedom Funds.

The House of Representatives and Senate agree that 401(k) plan providers should be allowed to bundle advice in with the plan, according to House Majority Leader John Boehner, Reuters reports. Currently, plan sponsors may offer advice, but only from an outside, independent party, yet many do not do so.

With stock markets around the world tumbling since the war broke out between Israel and Lebanon eight days ago, an estimated $1.48 trillion has been wiped from valuations, according to Birinyi Associates, the Associated Press reports.

Jude T. Driscoll, chairman, chief executive officer, president and trustee of Delaware Investments since 2002, resigned abruptly on Tuesday, a filing with the SEC indicated. His resignation will be effective August 1.

Charles Schwab reported second-quarter earnings Tuesday that were a penny shy of Wall Street's expectations, but chief financial officer Christopher V. Dodds said "the company is functioning as strongly [as] or stronger than we ever have in our history."

BlackRock, which is in the midst of being acquired by Merrill Lynch, announced that its profit grew 18.9% in the second quarter on strong fund performance and rising assets under management.

American Funds' Growth Fund of America, the nation's biggest fund and, since 2003, its best-selling, should close, analysts told Bloomberg.

Manu Daftary, manager of the $1 billion Quaker Strategic Growth Fund, told the Boston Herald he sees a 75% chance for a recession over the next six to 12 months.

Fidelity Investments has begun moving 325 workers into an office building in downtown Providence after spending the last year-and-a-half on a $13.9 million renovation project, The Providence Journal reports.

ING has struck a deal with AMN Amro to buy its fund business in Taiwan for as much as $86 million, pending regulatory approval, The China Post reports. The deal would make ING the biggest fund company in the country, with a 17% market share, and comes at a time when ING is planning to expand even further into Asia and Eastern Europe. ING already has life insurance and investment banking businesses in Taiwan.

Mellon Financial failed in its bid to acquire a 49% stake in Soochow Fund Management by buying the brokerage firm, Soochow Securities, which held that stake, Financial Times reports.

Legg Mason's chief executive officer, Raymond A. "Chip" Mason, got bonuses totaling more than $35 million in the past two years, and shareholder advisory firm Proxy Governance told the company's investors to vote against the compensation committee directors who granted it to him in their meeting yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Comerica and Washington Mutual are in the initial stages of selling their asset management units, sources told Associated Press. Comerica's mutual fund unit is the $41.5 billion Munder Capital Management, while Washington Mutual has the $26.4 billion WM Group of Funds. One company that is reportedly considering WM Group is Ameriprise Financial.