Investment products

A new era in retirement of the unprepared is dawning, as the West’s golden age of pensions comes to an end, according to a report from HSBC Insurance Holdings, “The Future of Retirement: The Power of Planning.”

Investors got downright defensive in next-to-last week of May, moving their money from stocks to bonds and money markets in response to persistent concerns about inflation and the debt crisis in Europe.

Long-term municipal bond issuance is half of what it was a year ago, with volume down 51% through the end of May versus the same time last year.

FINRA complaint alleges New York-based firm failed to properly vet non-traded REIT and posted misleading returns on its corporate website.

Structured CDs seemed to come out of nowhere. But they quickly became, arguably, the hottest products in the bank channel.

Annuity products, both fixed and variable, had a good run in the bank channel during the first quarter of 2011.

When it comes to saving for retirement, most Americans have a distorted and potentially disastrous view of just how well they're doing relative to their parents and grandparents.

State Street's Investor Confidence Index rose to its highest level since December, a sign that more investors are willing to move off the sidelines to capitalize on the market's recent strength.

Barclays expects Greece will be propped up for another year. Raymond James' Jeffrey Saut likes technology stocks. Vanguard is still bullish on money markets. S&P looks for funds holding consumer staples stocks that might do better in a U.S. stock market downturn.

FINRA has ordered Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch to pay up after providing faulty data and supervision of residential subprime mortgage securitizations.

Outflows from equity funds totaled $25 million in the week ended May 18, the Investment Company Institute said.

For portfolio managers of municipal bond funds, the past several months haven’t been for the faint of heart. Still, muni fund managers report mixed experiences in riding out the prolonged flood of outflows.

Guaranteed living benefits were adopted, when they were offered with variable annuities, 86% in the first quarter, according to LIMRA. That was down from a peak of 90% in the first quarter of 2009, notes Dan Beatrice senior analyst, retirement research with LIMRA.

Cortina Asset Management, a Milwaukee-based firm that manages assets for corporations, foundations and pension plans, has put together a new equity team to operate out of its new New York office.

They don't have the big-chip cache of the large-cap funds or the diamond-in-the-rough promise of the small caps, but mid-cap mutual funds have consistently outperformed both of those asset classes over the past decade and there's no reason to think that trend will end anytime soon.

Exchange traded funds continue to gain in popularity with both retail and institutional investors but actively managed ETFs represent only a tiny fraction of the more than $1.1 trillion in assets trading in U.S. ETFs.

The schizophrenic behavior of the U.S. economy in the past six months has forced large consumer products firms to look outside their own empires for new revenue sources. Fortunately, most of them have plenty of cash to spend.

Investors redeem $950 million from equity funds.

Taxable bond funds and exchange traded funds enjoyed another banner month in April, according to Morningstar's latest Direct Fund Flow Update, adding another $17.7 billion and $23.3 billion in inflows, respectively.

Mercer reports more searches for money managers globally.