Investment products

Goldman Sachs has filed to launch the Multi Asset Real Return Fund. The fund seeks real return by investing in inflation-sensitive assets.

Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners announced the launch of the AIP Dynamic Alternative Strategies Fund, its first mutual fund.

Fidelity Investments has rolled out a target volatility strategy, the Fidelity VIP Target Volatility Portfolio. The portfolio seeks to manage total return volatility within a target range.

MidAtlantic Trust Company said it had resolved record-keeping problems that have kept exchange-traded funds from being part of holdings in 401(k) and other retirement plans.

When it comes to passive investing, there’s a better way than indexing, according to blogger Steve Atkinson.

Vanguard is establishing an intermediary business in Hong Kong. Along with the new business unit, Vanguard also said the announcement of its first locally domiciled product offering in Hong Kong is imminent.

Thomson Reuters has launched a proprietary index designed to measure trust in global financial institutions called the Thomson Reuters TRrust Index.

Chairman Mary Jo White told the general membership meeting of the ICI that the SEC will “propose meaningful money market reform.’’ And that developing its next round of reform measures will be made with international regulation in mind.

SEC chairman Mary Jo White made no comment Friday on what new reforms for the money market fund industry will come out of her administration, except that its proposal will be “appropriate and balanced.”

Invesco, owner of the Invesco, Van Kampen and PowerShares funds, said first-quarter profit rose 15 percent as record client deposits lifted assets.

“We are seeing good cyclical improvement,’’ Mary John Miller, Under Secretary for Domestic Finance in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. told the general membership meeting of the Investment Company Institute in its policy forum Wednesday. “Now e need to tackle longer-term structural improvement.’’

Julie Castle, COO of the wealth management unit of Zions Bancorp., says her firm is primed for a growth spurt. "We could be 10 times the size we are today with 5 to 7 years," she says of the firm's projected AUM.

Large banks need to provide better information on these complex securities sold to the wealthy, regulator says.

Sentiment climbs, buoyed by big increases in retirement planning activity and fees.

The stock market has been more erratic in recent years - but not as much as you might think.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's new leader, Mary Jo White, will bring her years of experience as a federal litigator before the fund industry this week as its members try to judge whether she will propose reforms that could cripple the marketplace.

Even when the long-term market trend is defined by falling inflation-adjusted prices, despite short-term ups and downs, there may be opportunities to root out profits.

Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary Jo White is pushing to adopt a rule allowing hedge funds to advertise in a move consumer advocates say could fail to protect unsophisticated investors, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Pacific Investment Management Co. is becoming less dependent on Bill Gross, preparing for an eventual future without the world’s best-known bond investor and adding pressure on its rising stars to live up to his legacy.

During the week ended April 17, investors steered a paltry $3.66 billion into the funds, making it their most dismal week this year.