Mutual funds

When it comes to finding sub-advisory mandates, the size of the asset management firm is not a key consideration, according to a survey of 33 companies by Financial Research Corp.

One popular approach to retirement investing has long been bond ladders, but this tried and true method has always had a few drawbacks. One is inflation risk. Another is the difficulty of creating a diversified portfolio because of the minimum price for buying bonds.

Brinker Capital this week became the latest independent investment management firm to add a suite of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to its defined contribution retirement plan offering, adding seven new ETFs that range from defensive fixed-income funds to aggressive equity-based funds.

While mutual fund companies in general are not embracing mobile technologies to the degree that banks, credit cards and self-directed brokerages are, Vanguard and TIAA-CREF stand out in terms of its offering research and trades via mobile devices, according to Corporate Insight.

Nuveen Investments has launched the Nuveen Inflation Protected Municipal Bond Fund, which aims to protect investors against inflation and rising taxes.

It’s often noted that a company’s stock gets a bump in value when the company is voted into the Standard & Poor's 500 index, because index fund managers have to buy it. And if a company gets booted out, the same managers must sell.

Global long-term fund flows through April reached $270 billion, according to Strategic Insight’s “Global Mutual Fund Review April 2011, New & Top Selling Funds, Leading Managers.”

Fidelity Investments on Wednesday announced the launch of four Fidelity Defined Maturity Funds, a series of four actively managed municipal income funds. The funds seek to bridge the gap between individual bonds and bond funds and, therefore, fill a gap in municipal bond investing, Fidelity said.

In bull markets, many investors may overlook the importance of dividends. But when markets become more tentative or start to slump, dividends can look a lot more attractive and one S&P analyst found some international funds investors should be watching.

Deutsche Bank has rebranded five exchange-traded target-date funds, previously known as the TDX Independence Funds, as the db-X Target Date Funds.

Is a mutual fund company responsible for the statements made in a prospectus for one of its funds? Is the manager of the fund? Possibly not, in either case.

BlackRock’s iShares exchange-traded fund division has launched the iShares Floating Rate Note Fund (ticker: FLOT), its first floating rate fund.

Eaton Vance Management has launched the Eaton Vance Municipal Opportunities Fund, a fund that employs an opportunistic approach to investing in municipal obligations, with the aim of maximizing after-tax total return.

Enrollment in high-deductible health insurance plans that can be linked to health savings plans rose 14% in 2010, according to the trade association America’s Health Insurance Plans. And since 2008, enrollment has in such plans spiked by 87%.

The 1976 film “All the President’s Men” made famous the line "follow the money" and inspired an entire generation of muckraking journalists. Now some analysts at Standard & Poor's are saying their research shows this philosophy could also serve as a good starting point for identifying strong-performing mutual funds.

The fund will be sub-advised by four global advisory firms.

John Hancock Mutual Funds has launched three new fundamental equity funds, the John Hancock Fundamental Large Cap Core Fund, John Hancock Fundamental Large Cap Value Fund and John Hancock Fundamental All Cap Core Fund.

As investors become more worried about the U.S. economy, they seem to be pouring more money into bond funds and international equity funds and less money into domestic equity funds and ETFs, according to Strategic Insight, a business intelligence provider to the worldwide fund industry.

Highland Funds has merged the Highland Floating Rate Advantage Fund and the Highland Floating Rate Fund into the Highland Floating Rate Opportunities Fund, which offers better, daily liquidity features.

Dallas-based Highland Funds' Long/Short Healthcare Fund this week received a five-star rating from Morningstar which ranks the mutual fund among the top 10% of funds in the healthcare category.