Mutual funds

47% of Asset Managers Expect to Expand Product Management Staff

Mutual funds and large institutional investors are being spared from a new Securities and Exchange Commission proposal to reign in the growing use of dark pools to hide trading information, since only trades smaller than $200,000 would be exposed.

Invesco and Eaton Vance last week launched an exchange-traded fund and an actively managed bond fund, respectively, designed to track the performance of taxable Build America Bonds-a potentially transformative product that has helped galvanize public finance in 2009.

The U.S. economy is well on its way to recovery, according to most mutual fund CIOs, and just about all the economic charts show key growth criteria improving, barring an unexpected jolt.

With income limits and filing status restrictions being removed on Roth IRAs as of Jan. 1, Fidelity Investments has created an online Roth IRA conversion calculator available to its independent registered investment advisor clients and broker/dealer clients of National Financial, Fidelity’s correspondent clearing business. Using this calculator, advisers can walk their clients through a series of questions to help them determine whether a Roth IRA might be appropriate.

Barclays has launched the iShares S&P India Nifty 50 Index Fund, which tracks the S&P CNX Nifty Index of the 50 largest and most liquid Indian securities listed on the National Stock Exchange of India.

OppenheimerFunds decided to settle a lawsuit filed by the state of Oregon over its 529 plan for $20 million, payable to 45,000 investors in the plan early next year.

Transamerica has introduced a mutual fund platform for workplace retirement plans that offers target maturity choices, 300 funds from 35 companies and has no proprietary fund requirements. Sponsors and advisers also have a choice of pricing.

Three days after saying it would delay the effective date to permit 401(k) plan administrators to offer investment advice, the Department of Labor decided to scrap the rule altogether. The third extension for the effective date would have been May 17, 2010.

R.R. Donnelley has developed a financial services application compatible with iPhones, called Socrates, that investors can use to make purchases. R.R. Donnelley plans to follow up on this with additional smart phone applications.

Rather than being discouraged from saving as a result of the financial crisis, the market's 2008 decline and falling home values, these events have spurred more people into action. Seventy-five percent of 1,002 people surveyed by TDAmeritrade said one of their resolutions for 2010 will include a financial goal. Driving this figure overwhelmingly are minorities, with 56% of Hispanics and African Americans saying money-related issues will be one of their 2010 resolutions, compared with 32% of Whites.

Most financial advisers are preparing to add more financial planning services to their practices as a result of the recent recession, according to a report on practice management by Cerulli Associates.

Lord Abbett has launched a new website lordabbett.com/advisor designed to help financial advisers grow their business by focusing on three key areas: investment solutions, market insights and practice management.

Long-term mutual funds enjoyed their 35th straight week of inflows, totaling $8.42 billion for the week ended Nov. 11, according to the Investment Company Institute. Year-to-date, equity, fixed income and hybrid fund sales now total $357 billion.

Continued contributions to 401(k)s and a 34% rally in the S&P 500 in the second and third quarters have propped up average balances quite strongly, Fidelity found in an analysis of the 11 million individual 401(k) accounts it serves.

The Department of Defense is now making Morningstar investment research available to all 6.5 million military personnel and their families. Previously, only members of the U.S. Navy had this access, beginning in 2002.

Seventy-five percent of fund managers do not expect the Federal Reserve to increase the Fed funds rate until the second half of 2010 or later, according to the November BoA Merrill Lynch survey of 218 fund managers with $534 billion in assets under management. Twenty percent think this might not happen until 2011.

Robert Arnott, chairman of Research Affiliates, has won a U.S. patent for his fundamental indexing methodology, based on the size of a company rather than its market capitalization.

Only 6% of wealthy investors with $500,000 or more in investable assets characterize themselves as enthusiastic about investing, while a full 49% are either reluctant or tentative about returning to the market, PNC Wealth Management found in its sixth annual Wealth and Values Investors’ Outlook survey of 1,046 investors.

Asset managers evidently are optimistic about renewed growth in assets under management, with 47% saying they plan to expand their full-time product management staff over the next 12 months, FUSE Research Network found in surveys conducted over the past two months. However, since 80% said they laid off staff over the past year, employment levels are not likely to return to pre-crisis levels anytime soon.