Mutual funds

Primerica is incorporating two additional annuity products from Lincoln Financial Group into its retirement lineup.

Vanguard is establishing an intermediary business in Hong Kong. Along with the new business unit, Vanguard also said the announcement of its first locally domiciled product offering in Hong Kong is imminent.

Two or three years ago, institutional investors primarily used ETFs for tactical purposes, holding them for less than one year. But now they are using them strategically as well, according to the 2013 Greenwich Associates study of trends in institutional usage of ETFs, which was sponsored by iShares.

The T. Rowe Price New Era Fund is getting a new manager. Timothy Parker, the fund’s current manager will leave to pursue other opportunities, the firm’s spokeswoman told Money Management Executive.

Two former chairs of the Senate Budget Committee – one Republican, one Democrat – said the nation can come up with a debt deal and that would lead to explosive growth in the nation’s economy. And possibly the world’s.

Columbia plans to offer the Columbia International Value Fund, which will invest at least 80% of its total asset in equity securities of foreign companies that have market capitalizations of more than $1 billion at the time of purchase, according to the registration filing.

American Century is rebranding its target-date funds, dropping the LIVESTRONG name, which is associated with Lance Armstrong, and branding the funds as One Choice Portfolios.

meaningful money market reform.’’ And that developing its next round of reform measures will be made with international regulation in mind.

Independent broker-dealers and RIAs have the edge over wirehouses when it comes to adding mutual fund assets under management, according to Access Data and Strategic Insight.

Tax season has come and gone, yet the run of outflows from municipal bond mutual funds dragged into its ninth straight week, at $391 million.

SEC chairman Mary Jo White made no comment Friday on what new reforms for the money market fund industry will come out of her administration, except that its proposal will be “appropriate and balanced.”

The Lloyd Blankfein Show

Goldman Sachs Group chief executive Lloyd Blankfein said China needs ‘bigger equity markets” if it hopes to continue its “pretty impressive growth” of the last two decades.

Emerging Global Advisors (EGA) is in the process of registering several actively managed ETFs investing in emerging markets, under the umbrella of the EGA Emerging Global Shares Trust.

Independent broker-dealers (IBDs) and RIAs have the edge over wirehouses when it comes to adding mutual fund assets under management, according to Access Data and Strategic Insight.

Robert Sharpe joined Heartland Advisors in the role of co-portfolio manager of the International Value Fund (HINVX), which invests in smaller equity dividend-payers in developed and emerging markets.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged the trustees, chief compliance officer and fund administrator of a pair of mutual fund trusts with causing untrue or misleading disclosures about the factors they considered when approving or renewing investment advisory contracts on behalf of shareholders.

There may be global institutions with no leaders. Or U.S-led institutions that are not global. But no global institutions with U.S. running the show any longer, said Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group.

Globally, exchange traded products are scooping up assets on a faster pace than in 2012, according to BlackRock’s April 2013 ETP Landscape Report.

Finding something, anything, or any combination of investments that can generate an annual return of 5% on assets is a challaenge, as baby boomers retire at the rate of 10,000 per day.