Investment products

The credit rating agency is seeking input from market participants on a new five-point rating scale that indicates how the funds might perform during market duress.

Investors continue to stuff cash into municipal bond mutual funds, exacerbating a supply-demand imbalance that has kept yields on tax-exempt bonds near historic lows.

New report by Allianz says U.S. pension market is expected to see slower growth.

So will we have inflation or deflation in the next 12 months? I can say with some authority: Yeah, probably.

Things look up for the bank channel after a challenging few years.

Tax-free money market funds continued to seesaw during the week ending Aug. 30, declining $2.84 billion to $337.91 billion in total assets on the heels of nearly $600 million the previous week, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

The unit investment trust has quietly blossomed into the dominant investing vehicle for Build America Bonds — the taxable municipal debt created under last year’s stimulus legislation.

Fixed annuities, which experienced a sales boom last year in banks, stem the bleeding, while variable annuities finally start trending upward, Kehrer-Limra says.

An 11.4% decline in the S&P 500 Index fails to deter group plan participants’ long-term plans.

SEC reprieve for money funds that would require them to approve of the credit rating agencies they must use to determine whether a security is eligible for investment.

If there’s a day of reckoning on the horizon for municipal closed-end funds, the market hasn’t spotted it as investors continue to fork over a premium for the trusts.

According to a survey by Cogent, among the top five providers of exchange-traded funds, Vanguard is the only one to make gains in 2010, climbing 10 percentage points to become a “true iShares challenger.”

Latest stories warn investors against absolute-return funds, hidden 401(k) fees, hardship withdrawals.

Government’s effort to boost retirement savings could overburden small employers.

Municipal bond mutual funds reported another healthy slug of new money last week as demand for high-quality fixed income continued to drive investment flows.

Wall Street wirehouses continued to top the list of sponsors of separately managed accounts for the second quarter of this year, according to a research report just issued by the Money Management Institute and Dover Financial Research.

What caused the May dilemma?

For all the press about India emerging as a global juggernaut, you might think there are a lot of funds dedicated to the country. But you’d be wrong.

Consumer staples lead the push on the Russell 2000 Index.

Investment funds, lawmakers and other fund experts say that target-date funds need to increase the amount of information they provide investors to understand their investment risk. But they don’t want the Securities and Exchange Commission to change the way the funds are named.