Mutual funds

Fidelity Investments is offering a series of fee waivers and price reductions on its custodial platform for independent advisers and their customers beginning Oct. 1 that cover a wide range of services including technology, transition costs, custody and online equity trading. And rather than offer an interim, short-term discount, Fidelity says it is trying to position its platform as offering long-term value through these discounts and ongoing IT upgrades.

The AIG Advisor Group announced a back-office consolidation plan among its broker/dealers that will include cutting some of its workforce.

Commonwealth Financial Network will require advisers to earn credentials in fiduciary practices or retirement planning as part of its new Retirement Plan Consulting Program.

The Treasury Department has proposed several improvements for Section 529 college savings plans, including the use of age-based index funds and the elimination of home-state biases.

ETF Securities has launched the third gold exchange-traded fund, the ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares, which began trading on the New York Stock Exchange Arca Wednesday. In July, the company debuted a silver ETF.

Nearly half of those Americans who have retired are helping other members of their family, either by giving them money or managing their finances directly, according to the fourth Real Life Retirement quarterly survey from Charles Schwab.

The Investment Company Institute reiterated its opposition to a floating net asset value for money market funds, saying that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposals to strengthen the quality of credit and cash reserves in portfolios should adequately protect the funds from a crisis similar to what happened a year ago.

Broadridge and NewRiver have partnered on summary prospectuses to offer clients a complete solution, with Broadridge offering print-on-demand and New River a database of digital mutual fund prospectuses and reports.

Morningstar is offering advisers in-depth research reports for 20 of the largest target-date mutual fund series, based on five components making up the “five P’s”: People, Parent, Performance, Portfolio and Price. A pared-down version is also available to individual investors.

President Obama outlined a series of initiatives the federal government would take to help people boost their retirement savings.

Given the volatility of the past two decades in the stock market, starting with the 1987 market crash and ending with last year’s 40% meltdown, investment managers and financial advisers are beginning to update their portfolio risk management systems with stress tests that account for extreme events, The Wall Street Journal reports.

One of the biggest mysteries to emerge from the recession is why investors have stuck with their 401(k) in the face of a 55% market decline between October 2007 and March 2009.

PIMCO has joined the retirement income race with its Real Income Funds, a suite of mutual funds that ladder investments in TIPS to serve as an anchor for retirees' portfolios by offering them steady monthly income, inflation hedging and liquidity.

Forward Management has bold expansion goals — and it's aiming at bank trust departments to provide part of the growth, according to its president.

JPMorgan Picks Bareau to Oversee Emerging Markets

When Fidelity recently announced that its assets under management grew 9% since the end of 2008 to $1.4 trillion and that its market share, already formidable at 11.7%, has now topped 12.4%, pundits scoffed that it was Fidelity's money market funds that drove this growth.

FINRA Raises Margin Requirements On Leveraged ETFs

Regulators are looking for ways to increase accounting safeguards for investment advisors who have custody of client assets, but an investment advisor's group says some of the proposed changes are too broad and go too far.

BlackRock made a big splash in the exchange-traded funds business this summer with its $13.5 billion purchase of the investment unit of Barclays Global Investors, and analysts and executives are waiting for the next shoe to drop.

When like-named target-date funds experienced a wide range of investment returns in 2008, regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Labor took notice.