Mutual funds

Older Baby Boomers appear to be doing a better job of preparing for retirement than younger Boomers, though both groups are sorely underprepared for their golden years, MetLife found in a survey.

Closed-end fund shops like Eaton Vance could historically count on steady asset-based fees and additional profits from issuing auction-rate preferred shares. But due to the problems in that market, the company’s first quarter revenue and fees have fallen sharply, dragging down its net income 57%.

Amid all of the gloom, some stalwart financial planners are telling their customers that there are unheard of bargains in the stock market, the National Post reports.

Fidelity Investments is expanding its capital markets division by 20%, or 80 positions, in trading, sales, prime brokerage and operations to serve clients trading mutual funds and hedge funds.

The average account balance of 401(k) investors that MassMutual administers fell 25% in 2008, but, nonetheless, participants are sticking with the plans.

Fidelity reported Tuesday that assets under management fell 22% in 2008 to $1.25 trillion.

Morningstar is changing the way it looks at mutual funds by using new tools that consider the underlying stocks and asset allocations in a fund's portfolio.

Since the onset of the credit crisis in August 2007, the financial services industry has lost 325,000 jobs around the world, according to the International Labor Organization.

Mutual funds' 2009 sales outlook is modest, according to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

Bank of New York Mellon is expecting the China Securities Regulatory Commission to approve a mutual fund joint venture it wants to launch in the third quarter in partnership with Western Securities.

Investment Company Institute President Paul Schott Stevens testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee on Tuesday to avow that the 401(k) model is working, in spite of the market’s downturn.

With the stock market so beaten down, investors are likely to continue to gravitate to bond funds, including those that invest in corporate bonds, The Wall Street Journal reports.

With vastly lowered expectations for retirement, investors appear more amenable to annuities and other income-generating investments whose scaled-down returns they might not have considered before, NAVA found in a survey of 1,500 financial advisers.

Morningstar has replaced its Individual, Advisor and Institutional structure with Investment Information and Investment Management. Rather than focus on audience segments, the thrust is now product lines and growth strategies.

Morningstar reported third-quarter earnings of $19.3 million, or 39 cents a share, down 3.7% from $20 million, or 41 cents a share, in the third quarter of 2007.

Let's face it. The financial crisis is every bit as insidious as the most pessimistic prognosticators said it would be when the first cracks began appearing in the Bear Stearns hedge funds in the summer of 2007. And while President Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus package last week-hopefully a step in the right direction-there is no telling how long the crisis could continue.

As the global financial landscape continues to reshape, mergers and acquisitions this year will be led by those firms seeking capital or those that have capital in hand, according to Jefferies Putnam Lovell.

Morningstar has developed a series of 18 asset allocation indexes for investors and advisers to use as benchmarks for target-date and target-risk funds.

Mustin Joins Legg Mason As Institutional Director

MIAMI - In their frantic efforts to cut costs, many financial services companies have been jettisoning everything that isn't absolutely necessary to stay afloat. This may work in the short term, but senior leadership is starting to realize the continued need for expertise in regulation and compliance and customer service to provide seamless risk management, transparency and communication.