Special Program Root Tag

Conseco and a handful of other insurance giants that offer variable annuities have received subpoenas from New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the New York Post reports Friday. Lincoln National and Hartford Financial Services Group are two other companies Spitzer’s office is investigating for whether they knowingly permitted market timers to move in and out of their VAs.

Waddell & Reed Financial announced Tuesday it had completed the mergers of the Advantus Funds and the Ivy Funds family.

By mid-February, financial advisers who think that AdvisorCentral is just another mutual fund data aggregation tool might change their perspectives.

Fixed income giant BlackRock, Inc. saw its profits rise 22% in its fiscal fourth quarter, up 11 cents a share from the same period last year, the company said Wednesday.

The SEC proposed an amendment to the 1940 Act yesterday that would require all mutual fund and other investment advisors to adopt a code of ethics that would apply to all supervisors, portfolio managers and other key personnel.

An NASD rule that requires securities sold short to change hands by settlement date was expanded to include non-member brokers and dealers, the NASD announced Wednesday.

Nearly one-third of CEOs said they will never entirely trust their mutual fund due to scandals currently plaguing the industry, according to TEC International’s quarterly survey of chief executives.

The head of Fidelity Investments' clearing services unit says he believes this year will be another strong one for the Boston company in the bank channel as more banks look to broaden their investment services offerings.

Bank One, the nation’s sixth largest bank, said on Tuesday corporate profits rose 16% in its latest quarter fueled by strong banking and credit card revenue and fewer bad loans.

Jill Paitchel has joined Janus Capital Group as president, Janus International, the company announced Tuesday.

While the SEC is known for holding public comment periods, it’s now holding a truly public comment period.

Vanguard's re-energized International Explorer Fund has a new minimum initial investment amount - $25,000. The increase from the previous $10,000 initial amount was part of "an effort to curtail substantial cash inflows," the company said.

The board of trustees of BoA’s Nations Funds by the end of next month will be firing Invesco Funds and Putnam Investments as sub-advisors on the Nations International Equity Fund, Money Management Executive reports in this week’s hard-copy edition.

The Board of Directors at Strong Mutual Funds on Friday named former KPMG partner Phillip O. Peterson president of the funds, in charge of overseeing compliance at the tainted fund shop.

MFS Investment Management knew about market timing in its funds but was slow in curtailing it, according to e-mail messages obtained by The Boston Globe.

Researching retirement plans just got quicker and easier thanks to Fund Finder, which is part of the new PremiumERISA service, a not-so-free addition to FreeERISA.com.

Fidelity Investments had affluent clients in mind last week when it introduced a wide-ranging platform designed to help registered investment advisers (RIAs) better serve those clients with a bevy of new trust services to go along with separately managed accounts (SMAs) and other products tailored to the wealthy.

The umpire strikes back. Investors are finally getting the right calls, as regulators have unveiled a series of aggressive steps to improve fund governance and eliminate hidden fees charged to shareholders.

With the industry heading toward almost assured legislation relating to fees, the way funds market themselves is sure to morph, and some in the industry are bracing for a "revolution."

If it is true that politics makes strange bedfellows, then financial services scandals make for even more curious divorces.