Investments

In helping the middle-class save for retirement, President Obama may have also given a boost to the annuities sector.

The White House plans to promote “the availability of annuities and other forms of guaranteed lifetime income, which transform savings into guaranteed future income, reducing the risks that retirees will outlive their savings or that their retirees’ living standards will be eroded by investment losses or inflation.”

MassMutual reported record sales of its life insurance products last year.

In the wake of the financial crisis more and more consumers are concerned about runaway executive pay practices.

Stripping Rules Coming by July

U.S. District Judge William Alsup said that a 2007 e-mail that a Charles Schwab managing director wrote could prove to be a “mea culpa smoking gun” since the executive says Schwab should tell investors it misrepresented risks in the short-term bond fund.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is considering a bill that would require mutual funds, pension plans and other large institutional investors to publicly reveal how they vote their proxies, to impose proper corporate governance on otherwise passive investors who, seemingly, don't vote in the fiduciary interest of their end investors.

Citing national security concerns, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York pressured American International Group to withhold data about bailout payments passed along to counterparties, according to a report by Reuters.

Blackstone Advisory Services Vice Chairman Byron R. Wien, who has made annual predictions for U.S. markets and the economy at the start of the year for the past quarter century, believes there will be a number of welcome surprises in 2010—not least of which will be GDP growth surpassing forecasts of 5%.

John Hancock Financial Services has named James R. Boyle president, in charge of all phases of the company’s businesses, including life insurance, long-term care insurance, variable annuities, 401(k) plans, fixed products and mutual funds, the John Hancock financial network and investment management services.

Hedge fund investors are more concerned with transparency and liquidity than they are with performance, SEI and Greenwich Associates said in a survey report, titled “The Era of the Investors” New Rules of Institutional Hedge Fund Investing.”

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is considering a bill that would require mutual funds, pension plans and other large institutional investors to publicly reveal how they vote their proxies, to impose proper corporate governance on otherwise passive investors who, seemingly, don't vote in the fiduciary interest of their end investors.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup said that a 2007 e-mail that a Charles Schwab managing director wrote could prove to be a “mea culpa smoking gun” since the executive says Schwab should tell investors it misrepresented risks in the short-term bond fund.

Charles Schwab has begun offering investors six professionally managed portfolios that have access to 24 exchange-traded funds, each portfolio with an investment minimum of $100,000. The Schwab Managed Portfolios will invest in up to 19 core sub-asset classes and offer diversification across all the major equity and fixed income asset classes, including TIPs, real estate and commodities.

Earnings seasons continue as worries rise over interest rates and some say now is the time to hedge. Commentary from Asset Dedication, JPMorgan Funds, Bank of New York Mellon and Research Affiliates.

Sun Life Financial is readying a national marketing campaign to raise its profile, and to underscore the effort, has just signed a multi-year agreement with the Miami Dolphins to rename the team’s Miami Gardens, Fla., stadium the Sun Life Stadium.

Lord, Abbett has reduced the net expense ratios on two of its international funds by 31 and 23 basis points, bringing the Class A charges both the $949 million Lord, Abbett International Core Equity Fund and the $325 million Lord, Abbett International Dividend Fund to 1.12%. The two funds are now lower than the averages in both their Morningstar and Lipper peer groups.

In 2009, 425 mutual funds were either closed or merged out of existence, up nearly three-fold from the 145 funds that ceased to exist in 2008, according to Lipper.

More than 20% of hedge funds have been shut down in the past two years, as 1,500 funds were liquidated.

As it waits for the fee income that will come once interest rates rise, Bank of New York Mellon will continue to try and control costs and focus on expanding its asset management and asset servicing businesses overseas, the firm said during an earnings call last Wednesday.