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Nuveen Investments Tuesday reported a 14% increase in its second quarter earnings of $36 million over the period of a year earlier, on a restated basis. The firm’s operating revenues were $120.4 million, up 13% from 2003.

Noting that 71% of the retirement savings plans that it services now offer its Freedom Funds lifecycle funds, Fidelity Investments Monday issued a report recommending that more sponsors offer such default options.

AIG Global Investment Corp., an arm of American International Group Inc., announced that it has gotten initial approval to set up an asset management venture in China.

A prominent legislator is hard-pressed to shine a light on loosely regulated sate-sponsored college savings plans, calling on federal securities regulators to draft significant reforms that include improving fee disclosure.

Many fund executives have been bracing for tremendous downward pressure on fees, but that is unlikely to happen, largely because of investors’ general lack of concern when it comes to fees, according to a Financial Times editorial.

Separately managed accounts continue to grow at a much faster pace than mutual funds, Barron’s reports. In the 12 months through March 31, assets in SMAs rose 36% to $530 billion, and by 2008, they should top $1 trillion, according to Cerulli Associates.

Bank of America Corp.'s consulting services group is planning to launch a unified managed account platform early next year to enhance its quickly expanding fee-based services program. "From a technology standpoint, the foundation is here for us to build a unified managed account platform," said Dan McNamara, the consulting services group's managing director.

Many Congressmen are finding out that when it comes to fund reform, "you can't always get what you want," as Mick Jagger sings.

Things went from bad to worse for Invesco Funds, as federal securities regulators announced plans to increase the number of individuals facing civil fraud charges.

In a little over 11 weeks, firms are going to have to hire a chief compliance officer, a requirement that could prove to be a tall task for fund shops, particularly smaller ones.

Gonzalez Now Touchstone Southeast Vice President

The Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly may soon charge Fremont Investment Advisors and an ex-employee for late trading and market timing, the company said.

Investors have filed a class-action suit against Salomon Smith Barney for allegedly breaching its fiduciary duty between March 22, 1999 and March 22, 2004 by claiming its financial advisers were selling mutual funds objectively when, in fact, they were steering them into the firm's "inferior" proprietary family of more than 220 funds.

The parent company of First American Funds has entered a retirement share class into its mutual fund family. Through its fund subsidiary, U.S. Bancorp Asset Management, First American is reaching out to companies with assets ranging from $1 million to $10 million by offering R shares carrying 12b-1 fees to compensate financial advisers.

NEW YORK -- At a recent news conference held here, Calvert, a socially responsible investment management firm headquartered in Bethesda, Md., unveiled new corporate guidelines it created for the proper ethical and moral treatment of women workers. The news event was co-sponsored by Calvert and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), which provides financial and technical support for the enhancement of women's rights.

Playing favorites and making quid pro quo deals have been longstanding practices in the financial services industry, and the 401(k) marketplace is not immune to its ill effects. As such, federal regulators have joined their state counterparts in examining the opaque nature of 401(k) fees and related revenue-sharing arrangements.

Mergers and acquisitions for banks, insurance, and securities and investment companies in the second quarter were not more numerous, but the deals were worth much more, according to SNL Financial.

If, in your life, you have owned the White Oak Growth Stock, Weitz Hickory or Fidelity Aggressive Growth funds, you understand the teeter tottering feelings of elation and dismay. As Morningstar’s director of fund analysis Kunal Kapoor said in a recent Fund Spy column, figuring out whether any of these funds will return to prominence takes a lot more than looking at just past performance.

Ray Cunningham, Invesco’s chief operating officer, Timothy Miller, the portfolio manager of the Invesco Dynamics Fund and the Invesco Mid-Cap Growth Fund, and Thomas Kolbe, a senior account executive at Invesco, have left the company, AIM Investments told Money Management Executive on Friday.

Just days after the Securities and Exchange Commission ratified a plan that would require hedge fund firms to register as investment advisors, Chairman William Donaldson had to defend his decisive vote to skeptical Republican senators amid not-so-new news that Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan is also against the plan.