Special Program Root Tag

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.

Fidelity Investments will 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, The Boston Globe reports. It will be located alongside its current retail brokerage operations there and require an investment of $27.25 million to refurbish the site.

While they certainly have more resources to launch new funds and effectively market to investors and intermediaries due to their colossal scale, Fidelity, Vanguard and American Funds have good reason for their continued success, according to The Evansville Courier.

The tremendous returns that small-cap stocks have delivered in the past five years, particularly since 2003, may finally be at an end, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Hewitt Associates has just announced that its chief executive officer will retire in December and that the president of its core business has resigned.

Jackson National Life Insurance announced a corporate branding campaign Monday.

PowerShares Capital Management has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer 31 new exchange-traded funds, rounding out its existing lineup of 37 such funds, Investor's Business Daily reports.

Banks, small brokers and even independent advisers are increasingly offering separately managed accounts, hoping to put a dent in the 80% market share that large brokerages have on the industry, The Wall Street Journal reports.

John Hancock Financial Services Monday unveiled seven new funds that GMO will sub-advise. They are the John Hancock U.S. Core Fund, Instrinsic Value Fund, International Core Fund, International Growth Fund, Growth Opportunities Fund, Value Opportunities Fund and Growth Fund.

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

Asset management firms have been quick to bring new exchange-traded funds, ever increasingly popular, to market -- but many of them have been stymied by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has been extremely slow to approve them, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Emerging markets got big fast. So big, in fact, some analysts are comparing it to the tech-stock bubble of the late 1990s, which swelled and then burst, taking many investors' dreams with it, the Associated Press reports.

After leading the markets, Brazil and China have recently taken a back seat to old faithful blue chips, according to the Associated Press.

"Earnings momentum" strategy is back in a big way, but right now, it's not such a momentous time for investors, as market forces seem to be pushing their portfolios down, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The automatic options that Charles Schwab offers to plan sponsors and participants in its 401(k) platform are growing increasingly popular, the company said.

J.P. Morgan Chase offshoot JF Asset Management today launches its JF China Pioneer A-Share Fund. Managed from Hong Kong, the fund will be the first permitted to invest directly in China Class A Shares, according to the Wall Street Journal. The initial public offering will continue until June 30.

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, CNNMoney.com reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted unanimously last week to revisit the controversial independent chairman rule, reopening it for 60 days to public comment on its costs and "any issue related to the underlying purpose of the independence requirements, which is the protection of funds and fund shareholders."

The Internet could allow mutual funds to disclose to investors all the information that they have the right to, only, but on a need-to-know basis - and that might just be what investors want most, a panel of experts told Federal regulators during a roundtable discussion hosted last week at the Securities and Exchange Commission's Washington headquarters.

Financial intermediaries want more time to comply with Securities and Exchange Commission's Rule 22c-2, slated to take effect Oct. 16.