Subject Root Tag

Increased international competition, proxy votes and Sarbanes-Oxley were a few of the issues discussed during the House Financial Services Committee's review last week of the Securities and Exchange Commission's effectiveness in investor protection and market oversight.

NEW YORK-Despite the near dizzying deluge of exchange-traded fund listings, investment advisers say they still want more. Yet while their appetite for more tactical, more specialized splices of indexes seems insatiable, experts warn that sponsors may have had their fill.

Looking at the cultural chasm between independent and wirehouse broker/dealers, the fast-growing fee-based separately managed account business seems, to date, to have stayed on the wirehouse side of the divide.

Although there have been a smattering of articles about a reformation at Janus Capital appearing over the past few months, none has been as colorful or as compelling as one last week in Kiplinger's Personal Finance.

Former Fidelity Lawyer Sues Firm Over Policies

Fidelity Investments Adds 10 Staffers to RIA Group

Offshoring functions save companies millions of dollars a year, and as the practice matures, financial institutions are moving to the next stage of optimizing their offshoring operations, according to Deloitte & Touche's fourth "Global Financial Services Offshoring" report, based on interviews with 36 financial institutions in eight countries.

An intended class-action lawsuit filed in Illinois in mid-May has the potential to challenge how all state Treasury offices apply tax deductions for contributions to in-state, versus out-of-state, 529 college savings plans.

Score one for the mutual fund industry.

After a day's worth of discussion among industry executives, regulators, academics and investor advocates about the utility and future of 12b-1 fees, one theme emerged: something should be done.

NEW YORK-Including exchange-traded funds in defined contribution platforms isn't just a good idea for plan sponsors, it's darn close to a fiduciary duty, said panelists at a recent ETF summit held here.

Score one for the mutual fund industry.

SEC Judge Dismisses Late-Trading Case Against Former J.B. Oxford Lawyer

American Century Names Lurito Growth Equity CIO

NEW YORK-As unified managed accounts become more well known among investors and financial advisers, firms creating them are faced with questions of what functions to outsource, along with related technology issues and compliance rules, according to panelists at Financial Research Associates' "Unified Managed Account" conference here last week.

A small news item last week on the launch of a financial literacy course in the Shelby County school district in Tennessee this fall got me thinking about a golden opportunity for individual mutual fund companies or, perhaps, the industry as a whole.

At the beginning of this year, Barclays Global Advisors was the only investment management company with a bond exchange-traded fund. Today, however, there are nearly two dozen fixed-income ETFs from the likes of State Street Global Advisors and Vanguard, with more on the way from Bear Stearns and Ameristock.

The markets have gone global, and U.S. regulators ought to catch up if they want keep American exchanges competitive, allowing investors, particularly institutional, greater access, said participants during a roundtable discussion hosted by the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington last week.

Even if the Securities and Exchange Commission were to eliminate all restrictions on cross-border trading, retail investors' best bet for access to foreign markets might still be the good-old mutual fund, said panelists during a roundtable discussion in Washington last week hosted by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

NEW YORK-Global warming will have major economic, environmental and societal impacts if steps are not taken to help reduce the problem, and increasingly investors and the public are aware of this sobering fact.