Fund performance

With Sept. 15 marking the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the shocking revelation of Reserve Funds’ $785 million exposure to the debt, fund executives are taking a retrospective look at the historical run on money funds.

Due to a normal rate of redemptions in the Hartford MidCap Value Fund, The Hartford Mutual Funds is reopening the $476 million fund, which had been closed since 2004.

Morningstar is offering advisers in-depth research reports for 20 of the largest target-date mutual fund series, based on five components making up the “five P’s”: People, Parent, Performance, Portfolio and Price. A pared-down version is also available to individual investors.

Hedge funds returned 1.85% in August, beating only the Nasdaq’s 1.54% returns. The Dow rose 3.54% in the month, followed by the S&P 500’s 3.36% increase, according to Hennessee Group.

One of the biggest mysteries to emerge from the recession is why investors have stuck with their 401(k) in the face of a 55% market decline between October 2007 and March 2009.

Regulators are looking for ways to increase accounting safeguards for investment advisors who have custody of client assets, but an investment advisor's group says some of the proposed changes are too broad and go too far.

BlackRock made a big splash in the exchange-traded funds business this summer with its $13.5 billion purchase of the investment unit of Barclays Global Investors, and analysts and executives are waiting for the next shoe to drop.

When like-named target-date funds experienced a wide range of investment returns in 2008, regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Labor took notice.

Selling Van Kampen at a time when most asset managers are still bruised from the market downturn is not a wise idea for Morgan Stanley, analysts tell The Wall Street Journal. Assets have fallen 32% to $86 billion in the 12 months ended June 30.

U.S. multi-manager assets fell by 24.2% to $403.5 billion last year, according to a report on global multi-manager products released by Cerulli Associates.

Combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased 4.0% for the month of July, rising $398.6 billion to reach $10.431 trillion, according to the Investment Company Institute.

A push by institutional investors toward cash helped the total amount of money market mutual funds climb by $1.62 billion to reach $3.579 trillion for the week ending Aug. 27, the Investment Company Institute said.

Billions of dollars continued to flow into municipal bond mutual funds, gaining $1.5 billion for the week ending Aug. 26, according to Lipper FMI.

Bank sales of fixed annuities reached $8.7 billion in the second quarter, according to Beacon Research in Chicago, a drop in sales from $10.9 billion in the first quarter.

The market decline has hit RBC’s wealth management business, which reported a 10% decline in net income to U.S. $288 million in the third quarter from the same period a year ago. The firm said it was largely due to market conditions leading to lower fee-based revenue.

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. has lost its AAA rating by Standard & Poor's, due to the value decline in its asset management units.

After a rough 2008 in which almost 1,500 portfolios closed, hedge funds and bank trading desks are hiring again, and the top managers are being snatched up quickly, Reuters reports.

UMB Financial Corporation has discontinued the use of Moody's Investors Service for rating both its UMBFC and UMB Bank n.a.

After a series of high-profile losses in its money market fund sector, the Association of British Insurers has created the Deposit and Treasury sector, which will provide tighter controls on permitted investments.

Confidence among affluent investors grew in the second quarter, according to the TNS Investor Confidence Index.