Subject Root Tag

The U.S. division of Sun Life Financial on Nov. 1 launched its first brand and marketing campaign, “Get to Know Sun Life,” comprised of television, print, online ads and a home website containing social media channels. The campaign, aimed at both investors and financial advisers, stresses the company’s 144-year history.

Although the Supreme Court appeared hesitant to intervene significantly on determining appropriate mutual fund fees as the Jones v. Harris Associates case began Monday, the justices appeared interested in setting a clearer standard on fees, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Among the many voices weighing in on the mutual fund fee case the Supreme Court heard on Monday, Jones v. Harris Associates, are John Bogle, founder of Vanguard, and former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins, who, predictably, respectively side with investors and the industry.

Index mutual and exchange-traded funds tied to the S&P 500 Index vary widely on performance, cost and risk, Standard & Poor’s found.

Barclays Global Investors’ iShares exchange-traded funds group has selected two McCann Worldwide advertising agencies, McCann Erickson and MRM Worldwide, to develop a fully integrated campaign to drive awareness, understanding and use of iShares ETFs among financial advisers and institutional investors.

Money market fund assets fell by $2.27 billion in the week ended Oct. 21, bringing the total number of assets to $3.37 trillion, the Investment Company Institute said.

No shareholder has won a lawsuit against a mutual fund company on excessive fees since the standard for arms-length negotiations was set by Gartenberg v. Merrill Lynch in 1982, and the Jones v. Harris Associates case scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court on Monday is not expected to reverse that.

Volatile redemptions from and investments in mutual funds are not just due to market returns but to an entirely different approach investors are taking to fund ownership, according to a new report from ReFlow.

Forty-six percent of those leaving a job in 2008 tapped into their 401(k), maintaining an “alarmingly high” rate of people cashing in since 2005, Hewitt Associates said. Sixty-percent of those cashing in were in their 20s, and 33% were in their 50s.

The Senate Special Committee on Aging held a hearing Wednesday to examine the risks and potential conflicts of interest inherent in target-date funds.

Franklin Resources reported profits for its fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 30 rose 22% to $367.4 million, or $1.60 a share, up from $300.5 million, or $1.28 a share, a year ago. That beat analysts’ expectations of earnings of $1.32 a share.

The percentage of Americans at risk of having to cope with lower living standards in retirement has risen to 51%, seven percentage points higher than the 44% last measured in 2007, the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found. And the figures would be even higher if they accounted for healthcare and long-term care, the center said.

IndexIQ has launched two new exchange-traded funds designed to hedge against inflation. The IQ CPI Inflation Hedged ETF tracks the eponymously named index and the IQ ARB Global Resources ETF invests in a diversified portfolio of commodity-related equities to solve the problem of other broad-based commodity products tending to be overweight energy.

Fifth Third Bancorp is enjoying growth in its health savings account business after improving its product and expanding its staff.

Barclays Global Investors plans to launch a family of municipal bond exchange-traded funds designed to behave more like munis themselves by liquidating at maturity.

Eighty-four percent of workers who are automatically enrolled in a 401(k) plan stick with the plan, up from 77% in 2007, Charles Schwab found. Participation among all plans rose to 77%, up from 73% in 2007.

Dan Calabria, the former chief executive officer of Templeton Funds, criticizes the industry in a new book called “Mutual Funds Today: Who’s Watching Your Money?,” The Salt Lake Tribune reports.

Asset managers are embracing the UCITS IV directive in Europe, and are turning to master/feeder structures as the number of asset managers and funds decline, KPMG reports.

Bank of America Corp. wants to remind everyone that Merrill Lynch & Co. is more than just a sideshow.

Investors Remained Loyal to 401(k)s In First Half of 2009, ICI Reports