Special Program Root Tag

Best known for private banking, Zurich-based Julius Baer plans to bring four mutual funds to the masses, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Gold is the leader of the ETF pack, as these precious metal funds are dominating the rest for the past three and six months, Investors Business Daily reports.

While many retail and institutional investors gravitate to high-performance, high-risk hedge funds and private equity, they also continue to pour money into the opposite end of the spectrum: low-cost exchange-traded funds, Reuters reports.

Employers' efforts in recent years to boost participation in their 401(k) plans appear to be making inroads, according to Hewitt Associates' annual report on investor behavior in defined contribution plans.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's examination staff will hold regional seminars this spring and summer for chief compliance officers. The sessions are part of the Commission's ongoing "CCOutreach" program.

Putnam Investments' mutual fund assets have fallen below $100 billion, the lowest they have been in more that ten years, according to The Financial Times.

Wells Fargo intends to continue shopping for more institutional trust deals, which should in turn drive its mutual fund business forward, a company executive told American Banker.

In the age-old tug-of-war between nature and nurture, when it comes to investing, nurture pulls considerable weight, according new research from the Charles Schwab Foundation.

Given the ever-increasing popularity of hedge funds among institutional and high-net-worth investors, Morningstar is considering applying its five-star rating to them and roll out hedge fund research by the end of the year, Chief Executive Officer Joe Mansueto told the Chicago Tribune. Already, Morningstar has qualitative information on 3,000 of the universe of 8,000 hedge funds in its database.

Cynthia Glassman, a Republican commissioner with the Securities and Exchange Commission, announced plans Monday to step down sometime after her term expires on June 5, as soon as the SEC finds her replacement.

With Andrew "Buddy" Donohue taking the helm as director of the Security and Exchange Commission's division of investment management yesterday, industry insiders have begun conjecturing as to what kind of leadership he will provide the mutual fund industry.

Short-term trading website tradingmarkets.com is hosting a trading contest, whereby 10 former Playboy Playmate centerfold models each assembled a virtual portfolio of five stocks in January, to see how they would do against the S&P 500 and universe of mutual fund managers, Business Week reports.

The Hartford settled with the attorneys general of New York and Connecticut last week for providing kickbacks to group annuity sales brokers in the form of undisclosed expense reimbursements between 1998 and 2004.

Although technology-oriented funds have risen 31% in the past 12 months ending April 30, investors continue to withdraw money from them, The Wall Street Journal reports. In fact, they have been bailing out of them every year since 2001, and in the first quarter of this year alone, they withdrew $1.1 billion.

The Senate voted 54:44 Thursday on measures to extend until 2010 the 15% long-term tax rate on capital gains and dividends. Approved by the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday, Washington-watchers expect President George W. Bush to sign the bill within days. First passed in 2003, Bush has cited the tax package as an important part of his administration's legacy. Initially, provisions surrounding capital gains and dividends were set to expire in 2008, a presidential election year.

Federated Investors has agreed to acquire fund manager MDT Advisers for up to $240 million.

Putnam Investments is poised to recover after suffering $6.6 billion in outflows in the first quarter, according to Michael Cherkasky, chief executive officer of parent company, Marsh & McLennan Cos.

When the Securities and Exchange Commission posts its independent chairman rule for a second time, it will do so amid an industry milieu that is greatly unlike the one it met two years ago. That fact, combined with a number of other developments on the regulatory front, could determine what fixes the regulator must make to the rule and perhaps whether the controversial mandate will ever see the light of day again.

Some investors just can't resist the next big thing, even when there's a chance they'll lose everything, so the Securities and Exchange Commission has been operating fake Internet scams to teach those would-be victims a lesson.

One year into the Securities and Exchange Commission's XBRL pilot program, participants say it's not as scary as it might sound.