Investments

T. Rowe Price has launched the T. Rowe U.S. Large-Cap Core Fund, which will invest in a portfolio of 50 to 75 growth and value companies alike. More than 30 analysts will contribute their best investment ideas, based on a bottom-up approach that focuses on company fundamentals, earnings potential and valuation.

Calling revenue-sharing agreements between mutual funds and 401(k) administrators “controversial,” today’s “Fund Track” column in The Wall Street Journal urges investors to pay attention to these fees, since some funds levy them and others do not. Actively managed funds in large plans, rather than index funds or small plans, tend to charge higher revenue-sharing fees, the column warns.

Noting that one-quarter of employers have either already cut or plan to cut their 401(k) match, financial advisers are reminding investors of the importance of saving for retirement.

Hedge funds appear to be on track to deliver returns of 6% or better in the second quarter, their best quarterly performance since 2000, Merrill Lynch analysts project.

Advisers to 401(k) plans recently have revisited the wisdom of offering annuities, in light of last year’s severe market downturn. But group annuities are being criticized for subjecting investors to lockup periods of five years or longer and a variety of additional fees.

Replacing a team portfolio structure with a single top manager and doing away with quantitative strategies has created a new era of accountability at Putnam Investments that appears to be having a striking effect on performance.

While Fidelity Investments agrees with most of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed changes to money market funds, it doesn’t want to see “radical changes” to the asset class, a spokesman told The Wall Street Journal.

Assets under management are down for nearly all firms due to market depreciation. And making matters worse, most funds have also been hit with steep outflows. According to Strategic Insight, only about 22% of equity mutual funds had inflows for at least four of the last five months of 2008. But a few firms have actually seen positive flows over the past year.

DST Systems Inc. this year celebrates 40 years of providing market-leading solutions to the mutual fund industry. In recognition of this milestone, Money Management Executive asked DST's senior leadership to identify ways in which investment management companies can maximize the value they deliver to their stakeholders by leveraging the strengths and resources of their service provider.

Crandall to Become CEO Of Massachusetts Mutual

More Regulation to Result in Higher Costs

Regulatory leaders are questioning whether changes need to be made to target-date funds after several 2010 funds reported huge losses last year, but mutual fund industry leaders say these concerns are overblown.

Banking companies will be hard-pressed to repeat a banner 2008 in terms of sales of fixed annuities. Fixed annuities were popular late last year and early this year, but with interest rates falling and the markets in a fingers-crossed recovery, executives and analysts expect demand for these products to start tapering off.

Regulators are searching for ways to make money market funds stronger without inadvertently crippling the $3.7 trillion industry, but reaching that delicate balance will require compromises from both sides.

Financial advisers were able to save their millionaire clients big money last year, helping to fortify the need and demand for good advice among the wealthy, Fidelity Investments found.

John Hancock Funds has developed a tool that allows financial advisers to create detailed analyses of their clients’ portfolios and prepare high-quality, customized reports.

The economy will not bound back with élan but at least will provide a “normal recovery,” Vanguard founder John Bogle tells Bloomberg.

Sales of long-term mutual funds, i.e. equity and bond funds, rose by $11.14 billion in the week ended June 17, and for the week ended June 24, money market funds reaped $34.22 billion, the Investment Company Institute announced Thursday.

After years of the court system siding with the mutual fund industry on the discrepancy between retail and institutional mutual fund fees, the case that the Supreme Court will hear this fall, Jerry N. Jones et al. v. Harris Associates, might be a watershed one for investors.

ProFunds Group Thursday launched the first exchange-traded funds to offer three times the leverage of their benchmark index. The ProShares UltraPro S&P 500 seeks 300% of the performance of the S&P 500 in a single day, and the ProShares UltraPro Short S&P 500 seeks 300% of the inverse performance of the S&P 500.“The S&P 500 has the largest following in the ETF industry, with nearly $90 billion of assets benchmarked to it,” said Michael L. Sapir, chairman and CEO of ProFunds. “As a leader in short and leveraged ETFs, we are committed to giving investors more choices to manage risk and pursue returns.”