Investments

The TCW Group has appointed Meredith Jackson as General Counsel, effective January 15.

Almost one-third (32%) of the approximately 100 institutional investment managers surveyed think corporate earnings will grow in the first quarter of 2013, while the same percentage believe earnings will decline.

Pioneer Investments ventures further into Western Europe and Latin America with a new hire today.

Russell Indexes today announced a global alliance with NYSE Euronext to include the transition of RussellTick, an index feed for real-time, intra-day values for the Russell family of indexes to NYSE Technologies’ Global Index Feed protocol.

Global Thematic Partners has been fired as a subadvisor to the DWS Global Thematic Fund (SGQAX), effective January 31, according to a regulatory filing.

Consumers may be wary of life and annuity products as they confront more immediate financial concerns, according to the Deloitte Center for Financial Services.

Actively managed stock funds had the best performance over 20 years, edging passive stock funds 8.14% to 8.11%. And actively managed mutual funds of all types have done the best in the last five years, coming in at 1.98% where, for instance, passively managed exchange-traded funds lost 1.17% a year. Which just goes to show, when it comes to investing, active management versus passive management "is not an either-or" proposition.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has granted T. Rowe Price exemptive relief to issue actively managed ETFs, according to Morningstar reports.

Expect T. Rowe Price's first ETF to hit the market soon.

Minneapolis-based Riverbridge Partners has launched its first mutual fund, the Riverbridge Growth Fund, to bet on U.S. equities across all market capitalizations.

CLS Investments has appointment of Brian Clark as a wholesaler, covering Southern California, parts of Nevada, and all of Utah.

Vanguard has dismissed one of the advisors on its $6.8 billion Vanguard International Value Fund (ticker: VTRIX).

The current economic recovery, while slow, is on track. Fiscal cliff fears have been grossly exaggerated, to the detriment of investors and planners. And sometimes there’s an upside to a modest recession.

Boston-based Lee Munder Capital Group is currently prepping an alternative mutual fund to launch in April.

U.S. exchange-traded fund assets increased by $292.7 billion or 28% in 2012, in part driven by positive cash flows of $182.6 billion, marking a new all-time high for the industry on the eve of its 20th anniversary, according to data from State Street Global Advisors.

More municipal bond investors have shown an affinity for actively managed muni ETFs.

Inflows returned to the market for municipal bond mutual funds with a vengeance, at $1.55 billion for the week ended Jan. 9.

Lincoln Financial Group has selected the FireLight platform to automate and streamline its annuity applications.

Add one more fund firm to the growing list of transparent money market fund providers.

Beyond the usual New Year's resolutions such as to lose weight and exercise, asset managers should resolve to use technology to enable change and innovation in 2013.