Investments

Brinker Capital this week became the latest independent investment management firm to add a suite of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to its defined contribution retirement plan offering, adding seven new ETFs that range from defensive fixed-income funds to aggressive equity-based funds.

Money and time are both precious commodities at family offices, and Fidelity Investments’ 140 single-family office clients were looking for ways to help their clients get on top of the administrative tasks involved in doing good.

Investors are interested in innovative investments that meet specific principals, according to a study by CREATE Research, commissioned by Citi’s global transaction services and Principal Global Investors.

Research Affiliates sees high inflation, low growth in the developed world. BlackRock looks for companies with strong cash flow. Gold prices rise.

Canada’s securities commissions have proposed to require transaction data on over-the-counter derivatives to be reported to trade repositories.

The world’s top foreign exchange dealers are working on an industry-wide initiative to reduce the risk of “flash-crash” hitting the global currency markets.

While mutual fund companies in general are not embracing mobile technologies to the degree that banks, credit cards and self-directed brokerages are, Vanguard and TIAA-CREF stand out in terms of its offering research and trades via mobile devices, according to Corporate Insight.

In the last proxy season, the 35 most prominent shareholder activists, who together manage more than $500 billion in assets, filed resolutions with nine oil and gas companies pressing them to disclose their plans for managing the risks of gas hydraulic fracturing -- or “fracking”-- which is increasingly common.

Nuveen Investments has launched the Nuveen Inflation Protected Municipal Bond Fund, which aims to protect investors against inflation and rising taxes.

While the zero or near-zero interest-rate policies of central banks around the developed world are continuing, trading of active cash treasuries and their corresponding futures products remains active and interest rate futures markets both in the U.S. and Europe continue to grow and to add new products and new competition.

In the wake of the financial crisis that brought some of Wall Street's biggest firms to their knees and sparked a wave of sweeping regulatory changes, a new report from The Conference Board shows that companies are no longer hesitant to dismiss CEOs for cause.

It’s often noted that a company’s stock gets a bump in value when the company is voted into the Standard & Poor's 500 index, because index fund managers have to buy it. And if a company gets booted out, the same managers must sell.

ING’s U.S. retirement division is attempting to pursue the small- and mid-sized defined contribution business through the banking channel and with a convenience payroll strategy.

Sure, the economy is looking weaker these days, but fears about a double-dip recession are “overblown,” according to researchers at the money management firm Lord Abbett.

There is a great divide in the economic outlook of the 18% of the population earning $100,000 or more and the 50% earning $50,000 or less, the Consumer Reports Sentiment Index shows.

Emerging Global Advisors, the sub-advisor to the EGShares family of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) this week launched a suite of sector-specific, emerging markets ETFs.

I guess if you wait long enough, everything that once was will come back to us again. Even the bad stuff.

Global long-term fund flows through April reached $270 billion, according to Strategic Insight’s “Global Mutual Fund Review April 2011, New & Top Selling Funds, Leading Managers.”

Fidelity Investments on Wednesday announced the launch of four Fidelity Defined Maturity Funds, a series of four actively managed municipal income funds. The funds seek to bridge the gap between individual bonds and bond funds and, therefore, fill a gap in municipal bond investing, Fidelity said.

Conventional wisdom these days suggest that the U.S. dollar remains a safe haven for investors compared to the euro, which is under considerable pressure due to the growing debt crisis facing Greece and a few other European countries. But at least one analyst contends investors shouldn't be so quick to assume these macroeconomic developments are necessarily good for the U.S. dollar.