Mutual funds

Asset International has acquired Strategic Insight for an undisclosed sum.

Mutual funds took in $11.05 billion for the week ended July 22, up sharply from the $6.6 billion they netted the previous week, the Investment Company Institute said. The inflows were the highest since the week ended June 17, when long-term mutual funds took in $11.1 billion.

A full 66% of investors do not expect the economy to improve until next year or even later, and only 34% peg improvement for this year, online brokerage TradeKing found in a survey of 3,000 of its customers.

Fidelity Investments is giving its retail and institutional brokerage clients access to the initial public offerings and follow-on equity offerings underwritten by Deutsche Bank.

UBS has stopped selling leveraged exchange-traded funds, saying that the funds don’t conform to its belief in long-term investing due to the “short-term nature of these securities.”

Securian Retirement is urging sponsors that offer stable-value funds in their 401(k) plan to be aware that there can still be risks in such funds, depending on their holdings and the stability of the financial markets. Such funds need to be monitored, Securian says.

Putnam Investments is planning to cut the fees on many of its funds and tie the fees to the performance of a number of its funds, the company announced Tuesday.

The State Street Investor Confidence Index rose 3.6 points in July 10 119.4, up from 115.8 in June.

After earlier warning that it was concerned about investors holding leveraged exchange-traded funds for 10 days or longer, FINRA, in its latest podcast, appears to be backpedaling.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s new Investor Advisor Committee, in its first meeting this coming Monday, will discuss mutual fund point-of-sale and broker fee disclosures as well as fee transparency and other disclosures in 401(k) plans.

The Hartford has cut nearly 270 jobs in its investment products division, and more layoffs are expected, The Hartford Courant reports. The division sells variable annuities, mutual funds and retirement plans.

Despite that at 84%, the vast majority of advisers come into contact with a client with Alzheimer's disease, only 4% of the 350 advisers polled by Fidelity Investments feel they have the tools and training necessary to help those clients.

Haldeman Becomes CEO Of Freddie Mac

Capital Markets Committee Wants Mutual Fund Taxes Deferred

For anyone in a rush to snap up wealth management firms, or who thinks Wilmington Trust Corp. is poised for a buying spree, Ted T. Cecala says think again.

Firms attempting to prepare and strengthen their risk management systems in this rapidly changing regulatory landscape are finding it's a bit like trying to hit a moving target.

NEW YORK -- Most retirement planners agree that retirees should maintain some equity exposure during retirement in order to keep up with inflation and a retirement that could last three decades or longer, but what this level of exposure should be -- and whether or not the government should set some parameters -- is being widely debated.

The U.S. should adopt a Systemic Risk Council made up of top financial regulators, according to Investment Company Institute President and CEO Paul Schott Stevens, during testimony July 23 before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee.

Federated Investors reported second quarter profits of $53.3 million, or 52 cents a share, a 3% decrease from the $55.2 million, or 54 cents a share, it earned in the second quarter of 2008. It beat analysts’ consensus of 50 cents a share.

Lisa Myers, manager of the Templeton Growth Fund, told the Globe & Mail that while she is unsure whether the recent rally is a sure sign the market is turning around, she thinks there are plenty of compelling bargains, technology being one of them.