Mutual funds

Municipal bond mutual funds’ assets climbed to a new record total as they continue to command new money from investors in spite of low yields and a nonstop wave of bad headlines in the mainstream press over state and local government credit.

Target-date funds are more likely to be used by younger retirement plan participants who have lower account balances and have been at their jobs for less time, according to a study released Thursday by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Despite flat second-quarter results, Charles Schwab Corp.’s top executive remained upbeat about the remainder of 2010.

Despite the fact small-cap stocks have tumbled recently as greater economic uncertainty increased, the average domestic small cap mutual fund continues to outperform. So how come some observerrs are skeptical?

Morningstar says that Hartford needs to cut fees more to truly compete.

The hot topic in the media right now is actively managed exchange-traded funds. But given how relatively small the actively-managed ETF universe is compared to the overall ETF universe, this product has received an outsized amount of attention.

Demand for health savings accounts seems to be reviving after a long period of inertia that preceded the passage of health care reform.

Investors pulled cash out of municipal bond mutual funds last week for just the third time in a year and a half, despite a strong week for state and local government debt.

Just as the alternative energy industry will most likely provide lucrative investment opportunities, so will the overseas markets in the coming years, which is why Fidelity Investments is positioning its 20-year-old environmental energy mutual fund right at the crossroads of those two businesses.

Thesis Flexible is an alternative strategy fund that primarily uses hedge fund strategies and is already on the Fidelity and Schwab platforms.

TD Ameritrade and Vanguard Group have added the Thesis Flexible Fund, an alternative strategies fund, to their respective platforms. Grand Distribution Services of Milwaukee distributes the fund, managed by Thesis Fund Mgmt. of New York. The fund uses hedging strategies and is managed by the Thesis team with Stephen Roseman, Thesis Fund Mgmt. chief executive officer, as senior portfolio manager.

The number of exchange-traded funds has surged the past few years, bringing a unique business opportunity to Russell Indexes in Tacoma.

It's official: The 60-week-long, $600 billion-strong, steady sales streak for mutual funds is over.

After getting burned by the financial crisis in 2008, many investors have decided to sit on the sidelines instead of jumping back into equities. But Putnam Investments said at its mid-year equity markets briefing Tuesday in New York that it sees the uncertainty in the financial markets as an opportunity.

The reform bill that appears headed to enactment is designed to address problems that produced the 2008 financial crisis. A major premise behind the legislation seems to be that the crisis resulted in large part from regulators’ lack of adequate tools. Thus the bill provides the Securities and Exchange Commission, the primary regulator of mutual funds, and the Federal Reserve Board with even greater authority than they now possess. It also creates entirely new regulatory bodies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

As the buyer base for Build America Bonds continues to expand, Fitch Ratings has created a website so investors unfamiliar with the municipal market can visit a "one-stop shop" for all BAB-related research

Global assets under management rose 16.3% to $49 trillion last year from a year earlier, according to Cerulli Associates.

RS Investments, San Francisco, announced Thursday it has entered into an agreement to acquire the portfolio management team of Oak Value Capital Management, Inc. of Chapel Hill, N.C. RS will also acquire "certain assets of that firm, including its investment management relationships," the company said.

Vanguard Group announced Thursday an aggressive expansion strategy to expand its index fund family.The Valley Forge, Pa., mutual fund giant plans to introduce 19 new funds with exchange-traded fund in an effort to offer a wider array of low-cost stock and bond options. The firm will also launch ETF shares of its flagship Vanguard 500 Index Fund.

The mutual fund giant plans to launch equity funds and ETFs along with municipal bond and international real estate products