Fund performance

BOSTON - For decades, annuities were shunned by money managers for their high cost and lack of liquidity.

BOSTON - Like gambling addicts who just need one more big win before they cash out, millions of Baby Boomers on the verge of retirement took extremely risky bets with their life savings, hoping to score that big jackpot that would make up for all their past mistakes.

Hedge funds were dogged by steep, albeit somewhat smaller, redemptions in January, HedgeFund.net reported. At positive 0.2%, performance also improved somewhat. Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 8% in January.

Fidelity Investments continues to do a smart job of marketing in this tough economy with the recommendations in the February edition of its Investor’s Quarterly magazine.

Putnam Investments announced Wednesday it will lay off 260 people, or about 10% of its staff, on Thursday, Dow Jones reports. Most of the people being let go work in distribution or operations, but a few are in sales.

More states are offering conservative options in their 529 plans, some, such as Utah, even now including FDIC-insured savings accounts. Unlike other states’ bank-deposit products, Utah doesn’t require a minimum contribution.

Tiger 21, a networking group for high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth investors, reports that these investors reduced hedge fund weightings in their portfolios from 11% in 2007 to 2.8% in 2008.

Fidelity Investments is shaking up its stable of portfolio managers who delivered disappointing returns in 2008, The Wall Street Journal reports. In recent weeks, one manager has left the company, two were demoted to analyst and Fidelity is currently trying to reassign two others.

Mutual fund prospectus provider NewRiver is suing Morningstar for using Internet espionage to steal information from its patent-protected system.

Financial planners are spending a lot of time these days trying to allay their clients' fears. Anyone who works with a financial adviser most likely has money in the stock market and, therefore, has experienced steep losses in the past year.

Infrastructure funds may have been building interest ever since President Barack Obama announced his commitment to rebuilding America's infrastructure, but the managers of the First American Global Infrastructure fund have been laying the groundwork for years.

Defined contribution plans have been hammered by dropping equity markets, and this chain of losses has caused a ripple effect throughout the fund management industry.

The Investment Company Institute is pushing for improvements to municipal disclosure, which it generally considers limited, non-standardized and stale.

RiverSource Investments, American Century Investments and OppenheimerFunds have received "F" grades from a Morningstar analyst for failing to explain recent changes to shareholders and adding to the paranoia of already shaken investors.

Fidelity on Tuesday began the second phase of job layoffs which started last year. In this phase, 1,700 people will lose their jobs.

With the average target-date fund down 17% in 2008, investors might think twice about what has been one of the best-selling fund categories of the past few years, MarketWatch reports.

With few corporate bonds being traded these days, fixed income mutual fund managers are having a very hard time running their funds, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Financial planners are spending a lot of time these days trying to allay their clients’ fears, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Anyone who works with a financial adviser most likely has money in the stock market and, therefore, has experienced steep losses in the past year.

With the seven-day simple yield on money market funds now a mere 50 basis points, investors are beginning to look for other places to park their money. In the latest week for which figures are available, investors pulled $7.82 billion out of money market funds, iMoneyNet reported.

Mutual fund prospectus provider NewRiver is suing Morningstar for using Internet espionage to steal information from its patent-protected system.