Mutual funds

Value Line, its CEO and former CCO settled civil charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission for $45 million for having improperly funneled mutual fund trades to its affiliated broker/dealer and pocketing $24 million in commissions.

Of the wirehouse advisers who switched firms, 34% moved to another wirehouse, while 18% went independent. Another 11% of those wirehouse advisers went to a regional firm.

Putnam Chief Executive Officer Robert Reynolds is once again sounding the call for a new approach to 401(k) investing, inclusive of annuities and other retirement income products. This time, he is asking Washington to create a national insurance charter that will ensure consistent regulation for assured income products.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has hired Norm Champ, general counsel to hedge fund Chilton Investment Co., to head up its New York examinations group.

UBS Wealth Management Americas continued to hemorrhage new client assets in the third quarter at almost twice the clip from the previous quarter. Advisers also continued to walk out the door to the point that the company may not be able gain market share from competitors.

Since the market’s low on March 9, small-cap value stocks have delivered some of the best performance, but experts believe the pendulum is swinging back in the direction of large-cap growth stocks, The Wall Street Journal reports.

MassMutual Retirement Services, a unit of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., announced that September was its best sales month ever.

Mutual fund investors are not alone in how the financial crisis has profoundly changed the way they approach saving, risk management and asset allocation. Without question, investors are more conservative and interested in flexible products that minimize risk and use alternative investments during heightened market volatility or a prolonged downturn as we saw in 2008.

Senate Examines Risks Of Target-Date Funds

Some say that character is revealed by what you do when no one is looking. This may be true for an individual, but for leaders within organizations, I contend that perhaps character is revealed by what you do when everyone is looking. When the heat is on. When challenges abound. When resources are scarce, competition is fierce, and failure is a possibility.

Bank of America wants to remind everyone that Merrill Lynch is more than just a sideshow. Trying to move beyond the lawsuits and congressional hearings, BoA will finally start using Merrill for what it intended when it bought the beleaguered investment bank in January: to develop wealth management products.

NEW YORK - After the terrible performance of markets last year, disgruntled investors of all sizes are considering switching financial advisers to someone else, even if their own adviser buffered their portfolio so that it lost less than the market's overall 38% decline.

NEW YORK - Selling retirement income guarantees after a recession is like selling flood insurance after a flood. Timing is everything, and currently the timing could not be better.

The U.S. division of Sun Life Financial on Nov. 1 launched its first brand and marketing campaign, “Get to Know Sun Life,” comprised of television, print, online ads and a home website containing social media channels. The campaign, aimed at both investors and financial advisers, stresses the company’s 144-year history.

Although the Supreme Court appeared hesitant to intervene significantly on determining appropriate mutual fund fees as the Jones v. Harris Associates case began Monday, the justices appeared interested in setting a clearer standard on fees, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Among the many voices weighing in on the mutual fund fee case the Supreme Court heard on Monday, Jones v. Harris Associates, are John Bogle, founder of Vanguard, and former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins, who, predictably, respectively side with investors and the industry.

Barclays Global Investors’ iShares exchange-traded funds group has selected two McCann Worldwide advertising agencies, McCann Erickson and MRM Worldwide, to develop a fully integrated campaign to drive awareness, understanding and use of iShares ETFs among financial advisers and institutional investors.

Money market fund assets fell by $2.27 billion in the week ended Oct. 21, bringing the total number of assets to $3.37 trillion, the Investment Company Institute said.

No shareholder has won a lawsuit against a mutual fund company on excessive fees since the standard for arms-length negotiations was set by Gartenberg v. Merrill Lynch in 1982, and the Jones v. Harris Associates case scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court on Monday is not expected to reverse that.

Volatile redemptions from and investments in mutual funds are not just due to market returns but to an entirely different approach investors are taking to fund ownership, according to a new report from ReFlow.