Mutual funds

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

While they have been testing the social networking waters sporadically for as long as the past two years, fund companies are increasingly turning to social networks to communicate with investors.

Fidelity Investments is treating investors’ unease with the markets as an opportunity to help them revisit their retirement goals, risk tolerance, household budget and preparedness for job loss, by holding 500 seminars around the nation, offering online tools and running ads.

Unlike his predecessor, Paul Volcker, the current chairman of the Federal Reserve doesn’t believe money market funds should be regulated like banks, with reserve requirements and mandatory insurance.

Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that a case three investors in Oakmark Funds had brought over what they alleged to be excessive fees failed to meet the burden of proof, setting an important precedent that protected fund firms against such cases.

Citi’s transfer agent business has been awarded five stars by National Quality Review. Servicing 10 million shareholder accounts, it is one of the largest transfer agent providers in North America. National Quality Review bases its ratings on real customer inquiries.

After reaching a peak of $1 trillion last June, hedge funds-of-funds took in $300 billion in redemptions, or a 30% decline, Investhedge said. Today, hedge funds-of-funds have $744 billion in assets.

Despite the plummeting economy, most 401(k) participants are staying calm and behaving normally, according to 2008 year-end data from the Investment Company Institute.

Approximately 37% of investors are participating in target-date funds when their employer offers one, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Reserve Management's board has set aside $3.5 billion of the remaining assets in its failed Primary Fund to cover costs and expenses for pending lawsuits against the fund.

McCullough to Retire From DST as COO, With Hooley Replacing Him

Putnam Investments will waste no time reinvigorating its defined contribution business, and its long-struggling equity funds will have to earn their way into the mix, according to Robert L. Reynolds, its president and chief executive.

Over the past year, as the S&P 500 has hit 1997 levels, the U.S. gross domestic product shrank 6.2% in the fourth quarter of 2008 and investors' retirement savings have been severed in half, we have hailed the resilience of investors' faith in the markets. Our customers have continued to believe in the soundness of investing in mutual funds, the premise of long-term investing and modern portfolio theory, and the overall wisdom of saving for retirement.

85% of Advisers Believe Recession Will End by 2010

In order to achieve meaningful reform of the financial services industry, Congress should create two key regulatory positions to oversee financial markets, according to a proposal last week by the Investment Company Institute.

Mutual fund companies are finding that it's not too early to start tagging fund data with the international extensible business reporting language (XBRL) code the Securities and Exchange Commission has required them to begin using in July, though companies may find it's easier to outsource the job.

Growth fund managers typically seek out companies whose earnings increase 10% or more a year, but with the economy sagging, those managers are applying metrics they’ve never used before, The Wall Street Journal reports.

With stocks now worth less than 55% of their peak in October 2007—a decline of $11.1 trillion in market wealth—investor sentiment has been shattered and some market experts believe the process of finding the market bottom must begin all over again.

Investors who brought large balances to the table at brokerages or mutual fund companies have enjoyed breakpoints over the past few years. But with the market declining, many of those breakpoints will no longer apply, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Equity mutual funds suffered redemptions in 2008, only the third time in their history that they have had outflows. Actively managed funds lost $221.08 billion, while index funds took in $17.6 billion. "Some people who get their hands burned by these market drops move from active to passive [management], and every time some of them stay there," Scott Burns, an analyst with Morningstar, told Dow Jones. Passive investing "gains more converts" each time the market crashes.