Mutual funds

Financial Research Corp. has released its list of the top 10 asset management marketers, with American Funds taking top honors, followed by Franklin Templeton and Fidelity.

iShares’ 529 plan, based in Arkansas, has become one of the sponsors of the Little Rock Museum of Discovery, and to celebrate the partnership, iShares commissioned Cirque du Soleil, another organization it supports, to perform two acts at the museum on Dec. 10. In the spirit of the museum, the circus performers will discuss the science behind their acts.

Active traders are feeling increasingly more optimistic about the stock market and the U.S. economic recovery, Charles Schwab found in an October survey of 300 active traders.

PIMCO has hired Neel Kashkari, the head of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program up until May, as a managing director and head of new investment initiatives, in charge of developing actively managed stock funds. Before that, Kashkari was a vice president at Goldman Sachs, where he led the firm’s information technology security investment banking practice. Previously, he was an aerospace engineer at TRW Corp., where he developed technology for NASA science missions.

Generation Y, those between 22 and 33, have taken the financial crisis to heart and have become more conservative about their finances, Fidelity found in a TNS Global survey of 1,017 people in that age bracket who hold a job and earn at least $15,000 a year.

The number of Securities and Exchange Commission settlements fell for the second consecutive fiscal year, according to data released Monday. But, settlements could increase in 2010 and 2011.

MFS Investment Management has promoted Michael W. Roberge to president, effective Jan. 1. He will continue to serve as chief investment officer of U.S. investments, reporting to Robert Manning. Manning, who was previously president, will himself continue to serve as chief executive officer and chief investment officer.

While the market may have recovered significantly in the second half of the year, many investors’ portfolios are back to 1999 levels, resulting in a “lost decade” of investing, AARP Financial said.

U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Johnny Isakson (R-GA) and Herb Kohl (D-WI) have introduced a bill aimed at helping Americans save enough so that they will not be in danger of outliving their retirement savings.

Morningstar has started publishing credit ratings for about 100 of the largest U.S. companies. Over the next year, it plans to produce credit ratings for up to 1,000 companies currently covered by its equity analyst team. The ratings are available for free for institutional equity research clients at its website.

Fidelity Names Perold Asset Management Chief

Circuit Court Permits 401(k) Lawsuit Against Wal-Mart to Be Heard

Armed with a slew of wealth management veterans who chose to jump ship from U.S. Trust after it was acquired by Bank of America, Evercore Wealth Management has nearly doubled its assets under management to $1.4 billion in the past six months, but if that wasn't already impressive, the New York company's top executive expects to nearly quadruple that and reach $5 billion in the next five years.

While it may be too late for the Securities and Exchange Commission to pass any new regulations before the end of the year, financial experts anticipate major financial legislation and regulation to occur sometime in early 2010.

In the "new normal" that follows this recession, exchange-traded funds will be ideally positioned for a new world of lower expenses, lower returns and exposure to a wide variety of asset classes, experts say.

SunGard has created a Cost Basis Reporting Engine for mutual fund and other financial services companies. Compatible with any back-office system, it enables companies to meet the new cost-basis reporting requirements in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act passed on Oct. 10, 2008.

A group of Democratic lawmakers has introduced legislation that would impose a tax on Wall Street securities transactions.

Managers of 529 college-savings plans have always competed on fees, but the latest round of the bidding war promises to be the most intense.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is working on considerable 12b-1 reform for 2010 that could go beyond mere disclosure or a more appropriate name for the fees, Chairman Mary Schapiro told the Consumer Federation of America’s 21st Annual Financial Services Conference. One recent suggestion for reforming the fees was to rename them “marketing and fund promotion fees.”

Great-West Retirement Services has won New Hampshire’s 457 account, serving 5,800 state employees with more than $170 million in assets.