Investments

The fundamentals of what advisers need from wholesalers are changing, and wholesalers have no choice but to adapt. Our research at kasina concludes that wholesalers should focus on serving advisers' needs for:

The mutual fund industry should proudly celebrate Americans' 73% approval rating for 401(k)s, according to an Investment Company Institute report, "Enduring Confidence in the 401(k) System."

Morningstar Names Managers of the Decade

NEW YORK -- It's difficult to determine what something is worth if no one is buying or selling it.

The mutual fund industry should proudly celebrate Americans' 73% approval rating for 401(k)s, according to an Investment Company Institute report, "Enduring Confidence in the 401(k) System."

The banking company's fourth-quarter earnings quadrupled as it continued to see strong growth from its asset management business.

Investors who put money into a real estate investment trust at the beginning of 2000 earned higher returns by the end of the decade than from their investments in any other equity sector.

As investors became more cautious in 2009 they moved their money away from U.S. equity funds and into bond funds.

Long-term mutual funds took in inflows for the 43rd straight week, netting $10.61 billion in the week ended Jan. 6, according to the Investment Company Institute. Over the past nearly 11 months, beginning at the nadir for the markets on March 9, funds have taken in a total of $427 billion.

Axa Distributors, the annuity wholesale distribution unit of Axa Equitable, has created a comprehensive retirement income planning curriculum for financial professionals it is calling “Cracking the Code.”

Estimate Higher Than Last Year

REITs were the best-performing equity category of the past decade, according to the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts.

AXA Distributors, the annuity wholesale distribution unit of AXA Equitable, has created a comprehensive retirement income planning curriculum for financial professionals it is calling “Cracking the Code.”

Long-term mutual funds took in inflows for the 43rd straight week, netting $10.61 billion in the week ended Jan. 6, according to the Investment Company Institute. Over the past nearly 11 months, beginning at the nadir for the markets on March 9, funds have taken in a total of $427 billion.

Since its “Be on the green line” advertising and marketing campaign has resonated so well with customers, Fidelity has launched a “green line” video contest on YouTube.com that will pay $5,000 to the best video that interprets what that guidance means. Entrants are asked to give the impression that they are the “green line” in a well-produced video no longer than 90 seconds, that contains no music, that is in English and that features the Fidelity brand in a consistent manner.

Assets in exchange-traded funds around the world now surpass $1 trillion, soaring an astounding 45.2% from $710.9 billion at the end of 2008 to $1.032 trillion at the end of last year, BlackRock reported. By comparison, the return on the MSCI World Index in that timeframe was 27%, indicating that a good percentage of that growth was driven by inflows.

Financial Engines, an online 401(k) financial advisory firm aimed at individual investors, is planning a $100 million initial public offering aimed at large institutions and wealthy investors.

Wells Fargo, advisor to the Evergreen funds, is renaming the funds Wells Fargo Advantage Funds and merging and reorganizing many of the portflios. The end result will be a family of 128 mutual funds, variable trust funds and managed account shares, down from 177.

More high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth investors considered themselves “conservative” last year as compared to a year earlier, according to a Spectrem Group survey.

After spending the second half of last year exchanging its long-term expansion plans for extra capital, Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc. announced it received approval from the Treasury Department to begin repaying the $154 million in outstanding Series C preferred stock that was issued to the Treasury as part of its Capital Purchase Program.