Investment products

The Boston company said it is realigning to better serve advisors in the independent, bank, broker-dealer and family office channels.

Global exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products last month experienced outflows for the first time in two years losing $3.98 billion.

Total assets in municipal bond funds rebounded after a week of record outflows, even as investors continued to redeem their cash for the sixth week in a row.

In investors' epic search for yield, one strategy in particular has risen to the top this year: loan participation mutual funds and ETFs.

Investors yanked $28.54 billion from long-term mutual funds were $28.54 billion for the week ended Wednesday, June 26, according to the Investment Company Institute.

The recent market selloff battered municipal bonds unevenly, as those investors holding credits with higher coupons fared the best.

The $2.1 trillion global exchange-traded fund industry has been growing at a rapid clip since the SPDR S&P 500 ETF was launched two decades ago as a means for institutional investors to access passive exposure to the S&P 500 Index.

Non-traditional investment allocations in defined contribution plans, while commonplace in defined benefit pension portfolios, are a rare sight in today's retirement plan lineup.

Mutual fund companies are facing ongoing challenges in overseeing their financial intermediary relationships as omnibus processing and the reliance on FIs continue to increase, according to a new survey by Boston Financial Data Services.

The muni market, reeling from one of the worst selloffs in 25 years this week, witnessed record-breaking outflows to muni bond funds of $4.53 billion for the week of June 26.

The San Francisco-based regional bank extended portfolio management and asset allocation services to clients with $50,000 in investable assets.

The tax-advantaged plan was supposed to help average Americans save for their children's college education. Today, advisors are increasingly recommending them as an estate planning tool for the wealthy.

Readings show a modest lift in client optimism but a drop in retirement activity.

Issuers kept busy in the first part of the year, but mainly by changing existing products.

Assets of all exchange-traded funds rose in May by $12.14 billion to $1.481 trillion, according to the Investment Company Institute. Over the past 12 months, ETF assets rose $365.27 billion, or 32.7%.

Tax-exempt money market funds had outflows of $314.7 million in the week ended June 24, decreasing total net assets to $261.48 billion, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Municipal bond mutual funds that report flows weekly recorded $4.53 billion in outflows for the week of June 26, Lipper FMI numbers showed, after $2.22 billion of outflows reported the previous week.

Bond managers from DoubleLine Capital LP’s Jeffrey Gundlach to Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Bill Gross are telling investors the worst may be over for Treasury bonds after 10-year yields rose to a 22-month high.

With a new managed accounts platform, Merrill Lynch advisors will be able to turn to one website instead of five to answer a single client question – “How am I doing?”

Bond yields and risk spreads were too low two months ago and global markets that were too levered are now derisking, according to Bill Gross, manager of the world’s largest mutual fund at Pacific Investment Management Co.