Mutual funds

Advisors should be leery of the fads in mutual fund strategies, warns a top Morningstar analyst.

Huntington announced today that Gregory A. Smith was named president of Cincinnati-based Haberer Registered Investment Advisor, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Huntington National Bank. Smith will report to Steven Short, executive vice president and director of Huntington Wealth Advisors.

Bloomberg -- Brokers face restrictions on using clients’ assets as collateral for other trades, as part of a push by global regulators to prevent the securities lending market from sparking chain reactions that could cause a crisis.

Morningstar announced yesterday that Vickie Tillman has been hired as president of Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC and is scheduled to begin on Sept. 3.

OppenheimerFunds and Putnam Investments are among the winners of the 2013 NOVA Awards, which recognize innovation in the investment management industry.

OppenheimerFunds announced the extension of its senior loan investing franchise with the launch of the Oppenheimer Senior Floating Rate Plus Fund (SFR PLUS). This actively-managed fund offers investors access to the same experienced team as the firm's original Senior Floating Rate Fund (SFR).

Over the past 20 years, exchange traded funds have experienced astounding growth. There are now about 1,400 ETFs in the U.S. and 4,800 globally, according to statistics from BlackRock. The bulk of ETF assets (about $1.4 trillion) are based in the U.S., with total global assets hovering around $2 trillion.

BLOOMBERG -- BlackRock Inc. (BLK), the world’s biggest money manager, won dismissal of a lawsuit brought by two pension funds that accused the company of collecting “grossly excessive” compensation from securities-lending returns linked to iShares Inc.

Get ready for a new wave of low-cost, online-only financial advice companies.

A reincarnated version of an annuity that never gained much traction in the marketplace is finding fans among seekers of retirement income.

Wells Fargo's regional president of Florida operations has been promoted to a national executive.

As Gen Xers and Gen Yers put their holey jeans and futons behind them, many financial institutions are trying to lure those newly affluent age groups with high-tech services.

Bloomberg -- Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch unit agreed to pay $160 million to settle a discrimination lawsuit filed by black financial advisors, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said.

The fact that clients don’t always divulge all their personal financial information to their financial advisors comes as no surprise. The questions that need to be answered, however, are: how many clients, what is being withheld and why are they so secretive?

The Securities and Exchange Commission today sanctioned a former portfolio manager at a Boulder, Colo.-based investment advisor for forging documents and misleading the firm’s chief compliance officer to conceal his failure to report personal trades.

BLOOMBERG -- The rate New York state and its local governments pay to the $160.4 billion pension fund will drop for the first time in five years, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said.

As real estate recovers, non-listed REITs are soaring, but they haven’t been much of a hit with customers of Merrill Lynch.

OppenheimerFunds and Putnam Investments are among the winners of the 2013 NOVA Awards, which recognize innovation in the investment management industry.

Visium Asset Management announced the launch of the Visium Event Driven Fund (VIDVX). This is the first mutual fund offering for the alternative asset management firm, which was founded in 2005.

Morgan Stanley has bolstered its New York office with a top billing advisor team from J.P. Morgan Securities, the boutique brokerage branch of JPMorgan Chase.