Investments

For some time now, pension funds and other institutional investors have been looking for new ways to hedge against inflation and generate solid, reliable income. By hiring seasoned industry professional Joyce T. Shapiro, Franklin Templeton Real Estate Advisors (FTREA) believes it has found a way to deliver on both demands.

If nothing else, the last two years have taught affluent investors and financial professionals that change is often unexpected, swift and brutal. But despite taking severe double-digit losses on their portfolios, affluent investors surveyed recently by HSBC still largely have the same portfolio allocations they did at the onset of the financial crisis in 2008.

By hiring seasoned industry professional Joyce T. Shapiro, Franklin Templeton Real Estate Advisors (FTREA) believes it has found a way to hedge against inflation and deliver reliable income.

New distribution momentum in bank brokerages and other intermediary channels is a source of good news for T. Rowe, which has been successfully rebuilding its assets under management while it expands its presence overseas.

Putnam Investments will reveal all of the fees in the defined contribution plans it manages through a new sponsor website that launches next month.

After spending more than a year and a half trying to launch the Municipal Infrastructure and Assurance Corp., executive vice president Richard ­Kolman Monday announced that he left the start-up bond insurer to join U.S. Bancorp, which is ­launching a muni underwriting business.

A Fidelity Investments poll of broker/dealers and RIA firms found 86% intend to accelerate firm growth and profitability this year by hiring more advisers and brokers, in addition to building new and existing client relationships. Only 2% say eliminating or cutting non-essential costs will be the biggest driver of profitability this year, compared to 27% in 2009.

Wholesaler support and better client-focused materials are vital to annuities’ sales growth.

State Street Global Advisors and Nuveen Investments launched an exchange-traded fund tracking Build America Bonds Thursday, as investment vehicles devoted to taxable municipal debt continue to proliferate.

FINRA Eyes Action Against Firms Selling Municipal Bonds

Michael Decker, managing director and co-head of municipal securities at SIFMA, sets forth his case for not federally regulating underwriters when they provide what he calls “advice” to municipal securities issuers.

Municipal bond mutual funds continued to garner cash last week despite the flight from risk that has driven most of the flows this month.

It wasn’t a hedge fund, a proprietary trading desk at an investment bank or a rogue trader that may have been the key trigger behind the “flash crash,” one-thousand-point drop in the Dow.

GE Funding Capital Market Services Inc., a subsidiary of General Electric Capital Corp., does not agree with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s plans to file charges against it in connection with an industry-wide investigation of guaranteed investment contracts and derivatives, but is discussing the matter, including a “potential resolution,” with SEC staff.

The sub-Saharan markets have seen 11% growth over the past five years, far surpassing the U.S market.

Money market mutual funds ended their 18-week losing streak as investors sought the safety of cash in increasingly volatile markets. Total money fund assets rose by $24.23 billion to $2.878 trillion for the week ending May 12, according to the Investment Company Institute.

State Street Global Advisors and Nuveen Investments launched an exchange-traded fund tracking Build America Bonds yesterday as investment vehicles devoted to taxable municipal debt continue to proliferate.

Declining annuity premiums mean insurers may have to rethink their annuities products in order to survive, according to a report by Scott Hawkins, vice president and insurance analyst at Conning Research & Consulting in Hartford, Conn.

Sales struggle as dwindling variable annuity riders make 1035 exchanges less likely, compelling insurers to reinvent the wheel, according to a study.

The new offering extends beyond Fidelity’s investment-grade offerings to offer access to some of the ‘largest and most successful companies in America.’