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The Russell 3000 annual reconstitution takes effect June 30, and when it does, investors will see a slew of new companies, including 43 new healthcare and biotechnology companies.

The Russell 3000 annual reconstitution takes effect June 30, and when it does, investors will see a slew of new companies, including 43 new healthcare and biotechnology companies.

Ben Stein, author, comedian and actor, last week testified before the Senate in his capacity as honorary chairman of the National Retirement Planning Coalition on the value of annuities.

Pequot Capital Management on Friday fired back after The New York Times reported that Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating claims of insider trading at the $7 billion hedge fund.

Federal regulators seeking to increase regulations of hedge funds suffered a setback Friday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia called the Securities and Exchange Commission's adviser registration rule "arbitrary," sending it back to the SEC for further review.

Fidelity Investments will reportedly move 1,200 jobs to Florida, planning to open a customer-service center in Jacksonville by 2010 that will be manned by phone representatives, traders, salespeople and financial planners. It will be located alongside its current retail brokerage operations there and require an investment of $27.25 million to refurbish the site.

Increasingly, exchange-traded funds have individuals acting like institutional investors - or, at least, are offering them the tools to do so.

First, the good news. A decade marked by low interest rates, increasing property values, and a forward-moving economy has churned out millions of affluent Americans, or those with between $100,000 and $3 million to invest.

What are portfolio managers, chief investment officers and fund executives telling their fund shareholders these days?

As college financing plans evolve, so do the rules about selling them. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 is making prepaid college tuition plans more attractive. At the same time, as states add special features to their 529 plans to attract assets from both in-state and out, regulators want to make sure sellers disclose exactly what those bells and whistles entail. Meanwhile, the future of 529s may depend on extending the 2001 Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (EGTRRA), which expires in 2010.

While investors flee foreign equity markets, Franklin Templeton Investments offers an alternative, the Franklin Templeton Global Real Estate Fund.

A new mutual fund from Blue Investment Management, the Blue Fund, caters to Democratic sensibilities by seeking out companies that make political donations to Democratic candidates or political action committees and embrace progressive values.

Two Top Execs Announce Departures From Hewitt

Generation X is a debt-ridden demographic group whose lack of disposable income makes its members poor prospects for investment product sales, according to a survey released this week by OppenheimerFunds.

Federated Investors and Sentinel Asset Management have reached an agreement whereby Federated will acquire three of Sentinel's mutual funds, with $93 million in assets. Financial terms of the deal were not released.

First Trust Advisors today launched an Internet exchange-traded fund on the American Stock Exchange. It tracks the Dow Jones Internet Composite Index.

State Street Global Advisors launched six industry-specific exchange-traded funds Thursday, bringing its total number of SPDR ETFs to 65. Like its other offerings, the new funds trade on the American Stock Exchange.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has put three new rules and one amendment in place regarding funds-of-funds. The new rules codify exemptions that the SEC has granted over the years for such funds, while the amendment is a new requirement.

While it's sometimes surprising for an investor to check on the performance of their mutual funds, it's even more of a shock when they check on their funds' proxy voting records.

The number of millionaires in the world rose 6.5% in 2005 to a total of 8.7 million people with combined total assets of $33.6 trillion, a survey by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini found. Their net worth is double from 10 years ago, when the two companies began the annual survey of people with financial assets of $1 million or more.