Mutual funds

Investors’ list of financial concerns is growing longer. Added to the fear of not having enough money in retirement or being able to pay for their children’s college are concerns about healthcare and declining values in their savings and homes.

Asset management firms are increasing their sales and marketing budgets for the defined contribution investment only marketplace by 28% this year, according to a report from Sway Research called “Best Practices in DCIO Sales and Marketing.”

E-mails, letters and website messages from mutual fund companies to nervous investors are heavily on the rise, Rocky Mountain News reports. Across the baord, the message is: don’t quit the markets, for in the long term, the markets won’t quit you.

The Shareholder Communications Coalition has formed a new website, shareholdercolation.com, to educate the general public and policymakers in Washington about challenges to the proxy voting system.

PIMCO has launched the Global Multi-Asset Fund, a mutual fund that will provide broad diversification across risk exposures and asset classes. Co-Chief Investment Officer Mohamed A. El-Erian will lead the team that runs the fund. Other key executives on the team include Vineer Bhansali, a managing director and head of the portfolio management analytics group, and Chris Mewbourne, a managing director and generalist portfolio manager.

Nearly half of the senior citizens eligible for Social Security payments that begin at age 62 plan to begin drawing down those assets immediately, rather than waiting prudently for the higher payments that top off at age 66 for those born between 1943 and 1954, according to a survey of 600 Americans between the ages of 55 and 69 that Fidelity Investments sponsored.

Fidelity Investments might lay off as many as 9%, or 4,000, of its 44,500 global workforce by early next year, according to reports. That would be a considerable cut, on top of 1,000 who have been laid off in the past year through three rounds.

MFS Investment Management has formed a defined contribution investment only (DCIO) business development office, to be headed by Matt Gannon, who now assumes the title of senior vice president and director of DCIO and strategic alliances.

While leading banks, mortgage originators and brokers, insurers and investment banks have all taken serious hits from the financial crisis, investment management firms—most notably mutual fund companies—have been holding strong, buoyed by a steady stream of fees.

Banks and other financial companies that are willing to stomach a few more quarters of volatility could find themselves well positioned to acquire wealth management companies or talent, according to analysts and industry executives.

Despite the earth-shaking, “extraordinary” events in September, and the stock market declines “of historic proportions,” financial advisers are still telling investors to stay the course and predicting the financial crisis will continue as a recession through next year—but won’t worsen into a Depression, Money magazine and the Orlando Sentinel report.

While reports have surfaced in recent weeks of incredibly wide discounts on closed-end funds that signal undue risk, rather than buying opportunities, some financial advisers say that with a little homework, there are, actually, some wise buys to be had on closed-end funds, Dow Jones reports. Further, with most closed-end funds paying dividends, that is yet another strong case for considering such funds.

For many of the same reasons exchange-traded funds are so popular in bull runs, ETFs are appealing to investors in the market downturn; investors awaiting a turnaround in the economy, but not knowing which pockets will come out first ahead, are seeking broad market exposure, The Wall Street Journal reports.

OppenheimerFunds Retirement Services has produced a white paper to publicize its retirement assistance program designed to help 401(k) plan participants take advantage of their plans' benefits. The white paper focuses on the value of OppenheimerFunds' Tru(k)ourse, an enhancement to the firm's Pinnacle and Record(k)eeper Pro platforms. Tru(k)ourse is designed to help plan sponsors by combining automatic enrollment, automatic deferral increases and a Qualified Default Investment Alternative (QDIA).

Needles Now President at Touchstone Investments

Paulson Outlines Recapitalization For Banks, Thrifts

Few people know as much about mutual funds as Matthew P. Fink. For more than 40 years, Fink dedicated his career to serving the industry and its 88 million shareholders through his work for the Investment Company Institute, serving as its president from 1991 to 2004.

WASHINGTON - Despite signs of renewed strength in the credit markets, the Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday unveiled a new program to provide more liquidity to money market mutual funds.

JPMorgan Investor Services, PNC and Principal Financial take top honors in Money Management Executive's 2008 Fund Operations Awards. Now in its sixth year, the program honors industry leaders in three categories: Leadership, Innovation and Efficiencies/Streamlining.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. - Despite the recent daily thousand-point swings in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the understandable uncertainty among investors, Individual Retirement Accounts and 401(k) plans still remain American's dominant and trusted retirement vehicles.