Mutual funds

The huge burden of meeting new Internal Revenue Service retirement plan regulations just got a lot easier.

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards has raised the ethical standard guidelines for the 55,000 planners in the nation with CFP credentials, in order for investors to get better help in selecting among increasingly complex financial choices.

The Investment Company Institute said last week that mutual fund assets worldwide increased 6.2 percent to $25.82 trillion at the end of the third quarter of 2007. Asset growth was boosted in part by the participation in the data collection of an additional country.

The F&C Enhanced Alpha UK Equity Fund, one of the first so-called 130/30 funds to focus on UK equities, has reported its sixth consecutive month of beating the market since it was launched in August last year.

Henderson Global Investors, the $123.6 billion investment management company, announced the Feb. 11 reopening of its flagship European Focus Fund to new investors.

MFS Investment Management has launched a new fund, the MFS Diversified Target Return Fund.

In lockstep with a broadened direction by insurance firms to strip off the complex bells-and-whistles riders and bonuses of the recent past and to issue packaged retirement income solutions-and meet the demands of the new buzzword: decumulation-the other publication I edit, Annuity Market News just relaunched on Friday as Retirement Income Reporter.

WASHINGTON-Democratic leaders of the House Financial Services Committee are exploring creating a federal regulator or modifying a multi-state compact to increase oversight and provide more uniform standards for insurers of municipal bonds and other financial products.

In lockstep with a broadened direction by insurance firms to strip off the complex bells-and-whistles riders and bonuses of the recent past and to issue packaged retirement income solutions-and meet the demands of the new buzzword: decumulation-the other publication I edit, Annuity Market News just relaunched on Friday as Retirement Income Reporter.

Fetting Takes Reins At Legg Mason

The Baby Boomer generation is once again taking credit for saving the economy, according to Reuters.

MIAMI-Unified managed accounts (UMAs) continue to grow at the expense of legacy separately managed accounts (SMAs), according to a presentation at the National Investment Company Service Association's "7th Annual Managed Accounts Technology and Operations Conference" here last week, at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa.

Asset managers afraid to leave the safety of the herd are missing out on crucial opportunities for growth in international and emerging markets.

Prescott Joins FundQuest As Retirement Chief

Wisdom Tree Investments of New York is set to become the first asset management firm to launch an exchange-traded fund that invests exclusively in the emerging market country of India, with the planned launch of the Wisdom Tree India Earnings Fund ETF by the end of February.

NEW YORK-The marketplace for sub-advised and multi-managed funds is projected to continue growing as financial products become more complicated and fund shops look to outsource specialized work.

Last week's extreme volatility in the U.S. and international stock markets has many retirees and Baby Boomers approaching retirement worried that their life savings will fall short of expectations.

Way to go. Some marketing experts are beginning to get it right. The "Magical Mystery Tour" that's been the past 60 years of Baby Boomer buying power doesn't have to end with mutual fund companies instilling the dreaded fear of outliving one's retirement savings, dying impoverished and, possibly, alone.

Insured Bond Funds Quietly Outperform

UBS Global Asset Management and Genworth Financial plan to introduce a guaranteed income for life option for 401(k) participants.