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Mutual Funds

Week In Review

March 8, 2010 - Endowment Assets Expected to Change Hands in 2010, RIAs Claim $1 Million Not Enough For Retirement, Schwab Says Frugal is the New Normal, 72% of Workers Age 60+ Putting Off Retirement, Hedge Fund Assets Grew 62% in '09 to $1.96 Trillion, and Madoff 401(k) Funds Being Used to Terminate Plan.

JPMorgan Eyes Top-Five Status for Fund Unit

March 8, 2010 - Being owned by a bank has handcuffed many mutual fund units. Just don't tell that to JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s J.P. Morgan Funds. The unit increased its assets under management 6.97% last year to $445 billion and now has its sights set on developing more assets through banks to move up the rankings from the 10th-largest fund company to become one of the top five.

Week In Review

February 22, 2010 - AllianceBernstein Gives Target-Date Funds 20% Leeway to Manage Excessive Risk, 401(k)s Rose a Respectable 150% in Past Decade, JPMorgan Third Best-Seller, Putnam Chief Exec Says Absolute-Return Funds Set For 25% Market Share, Obama Administration Pinpoints Fixed Annuities, Congress May Restore IRA Contributions to Charity, and RR Donnelley Releases Prospectus iPhone App.

It's About Time for an About-Face for Funds

February 22, 2010 -

Week In Review

February 15, 2010 - SEC to Propose New Target-Date Fund Rule, 80% of Companies Plan To Reinstate 401(k) Match, 50% of Advisers Turn To Tactical Management, and the Employment Trends Index Continues to Improve.

Extreme Makeover: 401(k) Edition

February 8, 2010 - Investors are about to test drive 401(k) plans with a 21st Century whole new look and feel.The Department of Labor is promising streamlined rules for 401(k) advice that plan sponsors may actually use (see "Week in Review," page 4). The government is looking into the possibility of offering annuities or other lifetime income options in defined contribution plans.

At Deadline

February 8, 2010 - Defined Benefit Plans Beat 401(k)s By More Than 1%, ETF Council Set to Launch, iShares' Country ETF Blitz, and WisdomTree to Pull The Plug on 10 ETFs.

Grail Makes Big Bet on Actively Managed ETFs

February 8, 2010 - The actively managed exchange-traded funds sector is increasingly going mainstream, and Grail Advisors is riding right along with it. Grail is aggressively expanding its product lineup, introducing two fixed-income funds that brings to seven its stable of actively managed exchange-traded funds.William Thomas, the chief executive officer of the San Francisco money manager, said in an interview that the company plans to introduce still more equity and fixed-income actively managed ETFs and is in talks with mutual fund companies that are interested in converting to the products.

403(b) Group Seeks Common Language

February 8, 2010 - An industry group developing best practices for 403(b) retirement plans is coming closer to streamlining these plans to make them even more similar to 401(k) plans, but first they will have to get everyone to agree to speak the same language.Leaders say the SPARK Institute's work on 403(b) best practices is coming along smoothly, thanks to the cooperative efforts of approximately 50 participating institutions. The latest update, version 1.04, fixes many of these communication issues by requiring a standardized reporting format, which it hopes most institutions will adopt by this July.

SEC Tightens Money Fund Rules

January 29, 2010 - The Securities and Exchange Commission last Wednesday adopted several amendments to Rule 2a-7 governing money market funds that aim to reduce risks by increasing credit quality, improving liquidity, shortening maturity limits and requiring the disclosure of a fund’s “shadow” net asset value.The Commission fell short of requiring a floating NAV, but said it may still consider such a move in the future, as well as eliminating the disclosure delay on holdings and the use of credit ratings agencies.

Week In Review

February 1, 2010 - Bill Would Require Funds to Reveal Proxies, Schwab E-Mail Could Bolster Case Against YieldPlus, Affluent View Vanguard As Top Mutual Fund Brand, 425 Funds Closed in 2009, Lord Abbett Lowers Fees On Two International Funds, Experts Scrutinize Retirement Savings Woes, Wien Sees GDP Growth Surpassing 5% in 2010, and a Citigroup Strategist Warns That Bond Mania Could Bust

Putnam Calculator Directs 401(k) Investors to Retirement Income

February 1, 2010 - NEW YORK -- Online retirement calculators are usually so confusing or overwhelming that the average plan participant logs in, checks their account balance and then logs off without making any changes. Putnam Investments has developed a new retirement income twist it hopes will resonate with investors, plan sponsors and financial advisers. "Complexity leads to inactivity," said Edmund Murphy, managing director and head of defined contribution at Putnam, at a presentation at the Four Seasons Hotel last week. "Participants find it hard to see how their balance turns into retirement income. They are told they need to save millions, and they just give up and turn off instead."

Merrill Runs $20 Million 'help2retire___' Campaign

February 1, 2010 - Bank of America's Merrill Lynch Wealth Management has launched a new U.S. marketing campaign, "help2retire___," to illustrate individuals' evolving retirement priorities and personal aspirations. Budgeted at $20 million, it launched last Monday and is scheduled to run through the end of April on broadcast network and national cable TV, as well as print and online consumer and trade magazines, including sister publication Financial Planning.

Obama Proposals Could Boost Annuity Sales

February 1, 2010 - To help the middle-class save for retirement, President Obama may have also given a boost to the annuities sector.Last Monday, Obama proposed a series of measures, including expanding existing tax credits for child care and retirement savings, and providing financial relief for families caring for children and the elderly.The White House also plans to promote "the availability of annuities and other forms of guaranteed lifetime income, which transform savings into guaranteed future income, reducing the risks that retirees will outlive their savings or that their retirees' living standards will be eroded by investment losses or inflation."

New Financial Regulations to Create Unprecedented 'Sea Change' at SEC

January 25, 2010 - BOSTON -- Mutual fund companies must stay on top of their compliance programs, particularly because Congress is likely to pass new financial regulations, executives warn. "Regulation writing is about resolving tensions and balancing purposes,' said Michael Novey, associate tax legislative counsel at the Office of Tax Policy at the Department of Treasury. "Our task is to implement legislative purpose, recognizing that Congress' acts ought to be workable. There is a tremendous amount of misunderstanding about many of the proposed regulations."