Mutual funds

Instead of praising investors for making the “Smart Move” by moving to Fidelity, the firm’s new advertising campaign calls them into action by urging them to “Turn Here.”

Janus is merging its mutual fund units catering to advisor-sold and retail direct, a move many see as wise as more investors turn to advice-driven channels.

In what would be a tremendous upset in the mutual fund industry, Barclays is shopping its iShares exchange-traded fund unit.

Power Financial experienced its first quarterly loss in 15 years, losing $773 million, or $1.12 a share, compared with profits of $532 million, or 73 cents a share, in the fourth quarter of 2007.

JPMorgan Funds was the best-selling mutual fund family in 2008, taking in $140 billion, Financial Times reports. Nearly all of that money was in money market funds, for excluding those flows, JPMorgan was hit with $1.3 billion in outflows for the 12 months through February.

Federated Investors has launched three value funds under the Clover Value fund family name, the Federated Clover Value Fund, Federated Clover Mid value Fund and Federated Clover Small Value Fund. Subsidiary Federated Clover Investment Advisors is advising the funds, which will employ fundamental, bottom-up research and be sold through broker/dealers, banks and other financial intermediaries.

Socially responsible investing has been offering one of the few positives for investors during the recession, the Orlando Sun-Sentinel reports.

While money funds have provided one of the few bright spots for the mutual fund industry recently—with $3.9 trillion in assets, they currently hold about 40% of all of the total $9.4 trillion held in mutual funds—they are headed for reforms that could reduce their current paltry yields of 0.29% even further, the Associated Press reports. The government is likely to restrict the funds' holdings to avoid another fund breaking the buck, as the Primary Fund did last September.

Aviva Taps Ranges, Jacobs For Development, CIO

Thinking about retirement is anything but positive and encouraging, even for those in their 20s with a 40-year time horizon for saving. Most planners recommend an absolutely ungodly sum of cash as the entry point to safe and sound years. The government continues to predict the demise of Social Security. Insurers warn about soaring healthcare and long-term care costs. And now, with the market having wiped out $11.1 trillion in market wealth since it peaked in October 2007, retiring is absolutely unrealistic for many.

Don't Regulate Money Funds Like Banks: Fed Chairman

The Investment Company Institute has named Dean R. Sackett III and Donald C. Auerbach as leaders of its government affairs staff.

Congress is considering whether to make major revisions to the fair-value accounting rules that have created so much controversy lately. Possible changes include suspending the rules, improving value-at-risk measurements and reinstating the uptick rule.

Invesco's Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management plans to take advantage of the "chaos" in the financial services industry to add assets and customers, according to its new chief executive officer.

The mutual fund industry is eager to hear the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court case that could determine the fate of the Gartenberg standard, an old legal precedent used to determine whether mutual fund fees are too high that has set a high burden of proof for investors and spared the industry from lawsuits.

Two financial industry leaders are calling on Congress to enact concrete fiduciary standards to help restore investors' trust in Wall Street and the capital markets.

Integrity Mutual Funds has sold its mutual fund division to the employee-owned Corridor Investors and Viking Fund Management.

Money market funds netted $10.71 billion in the week ended March 11, even as the seven-day simple yield fell to a record low of 29 basis points. Assets in money funds now total $3.835 trillion.

For the past two years, activists have implored large fund companies to divest holdings in securities linked to human rights abuses. Now Vanguard has decided to make socially responsible investing screening official.

Fidelity has launched three mutual funds with a long-term focus designed for sale by financial advisers—the Fidelity Advisor Global Balanced, Fidelity Advisor Worldwide and Fidelity Advisor Convertible Securities funds.