Mutual funds

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Manhattan has refused to dismiss class action claims filed by local governments alleging that Wells Fargo & Co. and 15 other banks, broker-dealers and investment brokers conspired to rig bids and fix prices of guaranteed investment and derivatives contracts in the municipal market.

Ambac postponed the release of its 4Q and year-end earnings last week due to ongoing discussions with counterparties

T. Rowe Price was named the Best Overall Fund Group for large companies at the 2010 U.S. Lipper Fund Awards ceremony held March 24 in New York.

Because Apple hasn’t even launched the iPad tablet yet and most publishers and marketing firms still don’t have completed apps, which Apple must first approve, there are many unanswered questions about how it works for readers and advertisers alike.

NEW YORK—ING Solutions Funds Portfolio Manager Paul Zemsky has been bullish about the economy since the second quarter of last year and he expects strong growth to continue.

Most major equity markets rallied in February, driving the Morningstar 1000 Hedge Fund Index up 0.3%. The Morningstar MSCI Hedge Fund Index eked out small returns as well, up 0.7%.

Despite strong market returns last year, a majority of financial advisers have found that their clients will have to work three to five years longer to maintain their standard of living during their retirement, according to a survey.

As the global market crawls out of the recession, the rapid proliferation of narrowly focused exchange-traded funds, which slowed as markets crumbled in the past two years, is beginning to gain momentum again.

WASHINGTON — President Obama's successful fight to pass healthcare reform has given a bill to revamp the financial system a dramatic boost, lawmakers from both parties said Wednesday.

Sixty-one percent of leading mutual fund companies are taking advantage of the provision in the 2010 Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act that allows investors to convert a traditional IRA to a Roth, by proactively educating investors, a Corporate Insight analysis found.

Bullish sentiment toward equities has shifted from Europe to America and Japan, according to a BoA Merrill Lynch fund manager survey.

Citing the elimination of doubt about the healthcare reform bill by its historic passage on Sunday, Legg Mason Chairman and Chief Investment Officer Bill Miller believes healthcare stocks will benefit from the new bill in the near-term, but as higher taxes kick in, the overall market could suffer, Reuters reports.

Data integrity is the No. 1 concern for the 86% of the 130 C-suite fund executives from North America and Europe that Confluence surveyed, and 89% said consolidating fund administration data into a common database is critical.

Data integrity is the No. 1 concern for the 86% of the 130 C-suite fund executives from North America and Europe that Confluence surveyed, and 89% said consolidating fund administration data into a common database is critical.

Charles Schwab filed arguments in federal court in San Francisco on March 19 to try to preclude the Securities and Exchange Commission from suing it over its YieldPlus fund, which had nearly 50% of its assets in mortgage-backed securities, Bloomberg reports.

While the news on the healthcare reform is filled with backslapping from one political party and hand wringing from the other, the truth for advisers and their clients is that this historic legislation might be as much an investment opportunity as anything else.

Last week's initial public offering by the Palo Alto, Calif., company, a retirement plan advisor co-founded by a Nobel Prize winner, affirmed investor belief in a business model offering low-cost sophisticated retirement advice to individual investors.

In recent years, managers of target-date funds have made the argument that target-date funds need to take on added equity exposure and risk to see investors through retirements that could span 30 years or longer.

A new company is promising to shake up the way Americans invest by providing individuals with direct access to institutionally priced mutual funds and other investments.

HSBC has launched the World Selection Funds, sub-advised funds managed by a wide range of respected investment mangers and that employ tactical asset management to invest in multiple asset classes, including domestic and international equity, bonds, commodities, property and private equity.