Special Program Root Tag

Investors are no longer pessimistic when it comes to the securities industry, the Financial Times reports, citing a survey of 1,535 investors by Sanford Bernstein. But that confidence is leading many to overestimate their own holdings, with the average investor reporting their domestic equity portfolio has increased 9.6% over the past 12 months, which is impossible considering the S& P 500 benchmark index has gained a mere 5.5%.

A computer glitch at a Computershare Web site, www.vote.proxy-direct.com, made it possible for mutual fund shareholders to vote proxies under other people's names, Dow Jones Newswires reports. The mistake also left personal information available online, compromising shareholders.

Net inflows to international and global equity mutual funds are projected to approach $150 billion this year, which would be a 40% increase from last year, Strategic Insight estimates.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted unanimously on Tuesday to propose permitting companies to issue proxy statements via the Internet, which would not only help shareholders access information more quickly, but allow them to do it more cheaply, according to the Reuters.

Due to poor performance in Fidelity's flagship fund, Magellan, the management fees that Fidelity has collected in the most recent six months totaled $104.3 million, a 27% decrease from the $143.3 million in the same period a year earlier, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Touchstone Investments has entered into an agreement to acquire Constellation Investment Management for an undisclosed sum. The deal will add another $2.8 billion to Constellation's assets and a number of sub-advisors to Touchstone's current roster of managers.

NASD's enforcement action against Ameriprise Financial Inc. will cost the company $1.25 million -$500,000 in fines and $750,000 to compensate customers.

After tampering with options and securities, Jes Santaularia turned his part-time hobby into a solidly performing, $4 million hedge fund, Parrot Trading Partners, Kansas City Business Journal reports.

BISYS has expanded its hedge fund services into Ireland, with the opening of a new office in Waterford. The company forecasts that the new office will generate more than 250 jobs over the next few years.

Janus executives have been planning a management buyout since last summer, when they hired Morgan Stanley to handle the deal, a source told Fortune magazine.

Legal experts are now questioning whether Supreme Court nominee and U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Samuel Alito did anything wrong in a case he presided over three years ago that involved Vanguard Group, according to the St. Louis Dispatch.

William Ackman of the New York hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management recently met with fast food giant McDonald's to discuss a drastic restructuring proposal he personally authored, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Although New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has decided not to pursue criminal charges against former American International Group Chairman and CEO Maurice Greenberg, additional civil charges might be put forth as early as next week.

Due to a recent flood of outflows from its U.S. stock funds, Fidelity Investments is on a mission to expand its research group, and the move is forcing rivals to safeguard their best talent for fear of being cannibalized, according to the Boston Business Journal.

Pittsburgh-based Federated Investors reached a $100 million settlement with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday.

Nuveen Investments raised $380 million in the initial public offering for a new equity index option exchange-traded fund, the Nuveen Equity Premium and Growth Fund. The fund's primary objective is to deliver a high level of current income and gains from net index option premiums, and its secondary objective is capital appreciation through a diversified equity portfolio that will attempt to surpass the returns of the S&P 500.

NASD fined State Street Corp. $1.4 million for failing to report $5 billion in corporate and municipal bond trades between July 2003 and December 2004.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a preliminary request for proposal (RFP) to software vendors for management of the Electronic Data Gathering Analysis and Retrieval (EDGAR) system, looking to update it by making it interactive.

The state of Pennsylvania's pre-paid 529 college-savings plan, Pennsylvania Tuition Account Program Guaranteed Savings Plan, has received an investment-grade rating of A3 by Moody's Investors Service, and is now considered a low-credit risk, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin has filed yet another lawsuit against Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, charging the firm with disregarding repeated demands to produce documentation having to do with wrongful sharing of information between the company's mutual fund and insurance divisions, the Boston Business Journal reported last week.