Mutual funds

Putnam Investments has promoted two executives within its global distribution team, naming Joseph T. Phoenix and Catherine A. Saunders head of registered investment advisor business. Both have been with the company for more than 20 years. The two will continue to report to William T. Connolly, head of global distribution.

Just as many investors overreacted to the market on the way down, they need to keep a level head and not load up on too much stock in the current market rally, Vanguard is reminding investors in an online message from Chief Investment Officer Gus Sauter.

The mutual fund advertising rule that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority imposed in April 2007 that requires ads to contain fee information if they are also going to tout performance appears to be for naught.

Americans are redefining retirement, with 75% now saying they intend to work as long as they can, Bankrate found in a survey of 1,003 adults 18 or older.

While the average U.S. stock fund rose 16.6% the average international stock fund rose 17.4% in the third quarter, the two best-performing categories were Latin American funds (up 26%) and global real estate funds (up 23.2%), according to data from Morningstar.

U.S. Bancorp has acquired the fund administration and account division of Fiduciary Management. The unit has more than $8 billion in assets under administration, while the remaining investment management business of the company as $6 billion in assets under management.

Workers who had already been investing in their 401(k) for at least five years through 2008 saw their balances drop an average of 24% last year, compared with the S&P 500’s sharp 37% decline, the Investment Company Institute and the Employee Benefit Research Institute said.

Advisers are seeking new tools and products that will complement the strategies they now have in place for retirement income planning, instead of replacing them, according to new research from Cerulli Associates.

Edward Bernard, vice chairman of T. Rowe Price, is replacing John Murphy, chairman of Oppenheimer Funds, as chairman of the board of governors at the Investment Company Institute.

Sallie Krawcheck, the recently installed head of wealth management at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, said that the road ahead would not be easy for the few large brokerage firms left.

Bank of America plans to sell its long-term asset management business, Columbia Management, to Ameriprise Financial for as much as $1.2 billion in an all-cash deal.

Beery, Charles to Lead Distribution at Janus

Analysts Bullish on Asset Managers' Earnings, Margins for Third Quarter

NEW YORK - Regulatory officials are pondering significant changes to the way the U.S. oversees financial markets in the wake of last year's credit crisis and the failure to prevent Bernard Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme, but lawmakers will have to make some hard choices before any real changes can happen.

At the Securities and Exchange Commission's roundtable last week on how to regulate the multi-trillion-dollar securities lending industry to avoid a repeat of the billions of dollars lost in the credit crisis, the focus was on conservative investment of cash collateral and a clearinghouse to create transparency, reduce spreads and keep stock pricing efficient.

NEW YORK - Despite their sinister-sounding name, dark pools of liquidity can be very beneficial to average investors by offering mutual funds and large institutional investors an efficient way to make large trades without impacting the market.

If there is anything positive to be gleaned from the financial crisis, it is that 401(k) plan designs need to be revised so they are more resistant to extreme volatility and market downturns, Putnam Investments CEO Robert L. Reynolds told executives at the National Investment Company Service Association’s East Coast Regional Meeting in Boston.

Invesco is in the running to acquire the fund business of Van Kampen, which has $550 billion of assets under management, and the deal could be valued anywhere between $1 billion and $2 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Invesco and TCW Group have raised more than $1.13 billion from private investors to buy toxic assets from the government as part of the Public-Private Investment Program, the Department of the Treasury indicated.

Robert McCann has settled his lawsuit with his former employer Bank of America/Merrill Lynch today, clearing the way for him to possibly head up the U.S. brokerage arm of UBS.